RT Journal
A1 Wright, Stephen I.
A1 Agrawal, Newton
A1 Bureau, Thomas E.
T1 Effects of Recombination Rate and Gene Density on Transposable Element  Distributions in Arabidopsis thaliana
JF Genome Research 
JO Genome Research 
YR 2003 
FD August 01 
VO 13 
IS 8 
SP 1897 
OP 1903 
DO 10.1101/gr.1281503 
UL http://genome.cshlp.org/content/13/8/1897.abstract 
AB Transposable elements (TEs) comprise a major component of eukaryotic  genomes, and exhibit striking deviations from random distribution across the  genomes studied, including humans, flies, nematodes, and plants. Although  considerable progress has been made in documenting these patterns, the causes  are subject to debate. Here, we use the genome sequence of Arabidopsis  thaliana to test for the importance of competing models of natural  selection against TE insertions. We show that, despite TE accumulation near  the centromeres, recombination does not generally correlate with TE abundance,  suggesting that selection against ectopic recombination does not influence TE  distribution in A. thaliana. In contrast, a consistent negative  correlation between gene density and TE abundance, and a strong  under-representation of TE insertions in introns suggest that selection  against TE disruption of gene expression is playing a more important role in  A. thaliana. High rates of self-fertilization may reduce the  importance of recombination rate in genome structuring in inbreeding organisms  such as A. thaliana and Caenorhabditis elegans.