Heritable gene expression differences between apomictic clone members in Taraxacum officinale: Insights into early stages of evolutionary divergence in asexual plants

Abstract

The present study depicts a first effort towards a more complete understanding of apomictic plant genome evolution. We identify abundant TE activity and ecologically relevant functional genes and pathways affecting heritable within-lineage expression divergence. These findings offer valuable resources for future work looking at epigenetic silencing and Cis-regulation of gene expression with particular emphasis on the effects of TE activity on asexual species' genome.