Characterization of highly repetitive sequences of Arabidopsis thaliana

We have analyzed three classes of highly repetitive DNA sequences of Arabidopsis thaliana, composed of tamdemly repeated units of 180 bp, 500 bp, and 160 bp, respectively. The three families comprise approximately 2% of the Arabidopsis genome and are the major component of the highly repetitive DNA. The 500-bp element arose by duplication of one half of a 180-bp ancestor and insertion of a foreign segment between the two duplicated parts followed by amplification. The repeat elements contain occasionally palindromes and other motifs but none are significantly conserved. There is no significant similarity with previously published repetitive elements. Heterogeneity between monomers ranges from 6% to 17%. Monomers derived from different clusters in the genome are more diverged than monomers of the same array.