Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2025
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster E121
Höfundar / Authors: Victor A. Albert
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Iceland
Kynnir / Presenter: Victor A. Albert
Comparative studies of plant genomes and cancer cells reveal striking parallels in chromosomal behavior, from centromere organization to the consequences of polyploidy and large-scale rearrangements. Using long-read DNA sequencing to resolve highly repetitive regions, we investigated an evolutionary shift to holocentricity in two closely related sundew species (Drosera; sóldögg in Icelandic): one holocentric hexaploid, the other monocentric dodecaploid. Holocentricity confers tolerance to chromosomal fusions and fissions, paralleling polycentric cancer chromosomes where fragmentation does not prevent segregation. Likewise, whole-genome duplication, common in cancers, is naturally tolerated in plants and may facilitate diversification. Beyond polyploidy, we explore how block duplications/translocations can carry biosynthetic gene clusters for metabolic innovation in plants, while similar restructuring in humans drives disease. These studies illustrate how centromere shifts, genome doubling, and large-scale rearrangements (though destabilizing in cancer) act as adaptive forces in plants, promoting evolutionary innovation.