Miniature Inverted-repeat Transposable Elements (MITEs) and their effects on the regulation of major genes in cereal grass genomes

Various chemical modifications to non-coding DNA sequences can alter the regulation of gene expression. Although the mechanisms governing these pathways are still unclear, and non-coding regions were previously referred to as junk DNA, the evidence accumulated to date shows that these unknown processes are becoming more understandable and, in addition, that these sequences (Transposable Elements, repeat sequences) play critical roles in gene regulation. Consequently, this study aims to understand how Miniature Inverted-repeat Transposable Elements (MITEs) and chromatin remodeling complexes are involved in regulating the gene expression of Rht-1 and tb1, key developmental loci from bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) and maize (Zea mays), respectively. At present, the transcription regulation functions of MITEs in crop genomes are rather undefined, therefore it becomes important to focus on these issues in order to improve current molecular breeding methods. Moreover, this study will attempt to shed light on historical and conspicuous phenotypic changes undergone by both crops, which have been previously considered to be a consequence of the overexpression of these master regulators involved in their development.