Sequence and analysis of chromosome 4 of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana

• DOI: 10.1038/47134
• Publication Date: 2002-07-26T08:41:25Z
• Authors: K. Mayer; C. Schüller; R. Wambutt; G. Murphy; G. Volckaert; T. Pohl; A. Düsterhöft; W. Stiekema; K.-D. Entian; N. Terryn; B. Harris; W. Ansorge; P. Brandt; L. Grivell; M. Rieger; M. Weichselgartner; V. de Simone; B. Obermaier; R. Mache; M. Müller; M. Kreis; M. Delseny; P. Puigdomenech; M. Watson; T. Schmidtheini; B. Reichert; D. Portatelle; M. Perez-Alonso; M. Boutry; I. Bancroft; P. Vos; J. Hoheisel; W. Zimmermann; H. Wedler; P. Ridley; S.-A. Langham; B. McCullagh; L. Bilham; J. Robben; J. Van der Schueren; B. Grymonprez; Y.-J. Chuang; F. Vandenbussche; M. Braeken; I. Weltjens; M. Voet; I. Bastiaens; R. Aert; E. Defoor; T. Weitzenegger; G. Bothe; U. Ramsperger; H. Hilbert; M. Braun; E. Holzer; A. Brandt; S. Peters; M. van Staveren; W. Dirkse; P. Mooijman; R. Klein Lankhorst; M. Rose; J. Hauf; P. Kötter; S. Berneiser; S. Hempel; M. Feldpausch; S. Lamberth; H. Van den Daele; A. De Keyser; C. Buysshaert; J. Gielen; R. Villarroel; R. De Clercq; M. Van Montagu; J. Rogers; A. Cronin; M. Quail; S. Bray-Allen; L. Clark; J. Doggett; S. Hall; M. Kay; N. Lennard; K. McLay; R. Mayes; A. Pettett; M.-A. Rajandream; M. Lyne; V. Benes; S. Rechmann; D. Borkova; H. Blöcker; M. Scharfe; M. Grimm; T.-H. Löhnert; S. Dose; M. de Haan; A. Maarse; M. Schäfer; S. Müller-Auer; C. Gabel; M. Fuchs; B. Fartmann; K. Granderath; D. Dauner; A. Herzl; S. Neumann; A. Argiriou; D. Vitale; R. Liguori; E. Piravandi; O. Massenet; F. Quigley; G. Clabauld; A. Mündlein; R. Felber; S. Schnabl; R. Hiller; W. Schmidt; A. Lecharny; S. Aubourg; F. Chefdor; R. Cooke; C. Berger; A. Montfort; E. Casacuberta; T. Gibbons; N. Weber; M. Vandenbol; M. Bargues; J. Terol; A. Torres; A. Perez-Perez; B. Purnelle; E. Bent; S. Johnson; D. Tacon; T. Jesse; L. Heijnen; S. Schwarz; P. Scholler; S. Heber; P. Francs; C. Bielke; D. Frishman; D. Haase; K. Lemcke; H. W. Mewes; S. Stocker; P. Zaccaria; M. Bevan; R. K. Wilson; M. de la Bastide; K. Habermann; L. Parnell; N. Dedhia; L. Gnoj; K. Schutz; E. Huang; L. Spiegel; M. Sehkon; J. Murray; P. Sheet; M. Cordes; J. Abu-Threideh; T. Stoneking; J. Kalicki; T. Graves; G. Harmon; J. Edwards; P. Latreille; L. Courtney; J. Cloud; A. Abbott; K. Scott; D. Johnson; P. Minx; D. Bentley; B. Fulton; N. Miller; T. Greco; K. Kemp; J. Kramer; L. Fulton; E. Mardis; M. Dante; K. Pepin; L. Hillier; J. Nelson; J. Spieth; E. Ryan; S. Andrews; C. Geisel; D. Layman; H. Du; J. Ali; A. Berghoff; K. Jones; K. Drone; M. Cotton; C. Joshu; B. Antonoiu; M. Zidanic; C. Strong; H. Sun; B. Lamar; C. Yordan; P. Ma; J. Zhong; R. Preston; D. Vil; M. Shekher; A. Matero; R. Shah; I'K. Swaby; A. O'Shaughnessy; M. Rodriguez; J. Hoffman; S. Till; S. Granat; N. Shohdy; A. Hasegawa; A. Hameed; M. Lodhi; A. Johnson; E. Chen; M. Marra; R. Martienssen; W. R. McCombie
• Keywords: 580; 0301 basic medicine; 570; DNA, Plant; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Protein Conformation; [SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio]; Molecular Sequence Data; Arabidopsis; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Genes, Plant; Chromosomes; [SDV] Life Sciences [q-bio]; 03 medical and health sciences; Heterochromatin; Multigene Family; Animals; Humans; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 4; Plant Proteins

The higher plant Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) is an important model for identifying plant genes and determining their function. To assist biological investigations and to define chromosome structure, a coordinated effort to sequence the Arabidopsis genome was initiated in late 1996. Here we report one of the first milestones of this project, the sequence of chromosome 4. Analysis of 17.38 megabases of unique sequence, representing about 17% of the genome, reveals 3,744 protein coding genes, 81 transfer RNAs and numerous repeat elements. Heterochromatic regions surrounding the putative centromere, which has not yet been completely sequenced, are characterized by an increased frequency of a variety of repeats, new repeats, reduced recombination, lowered gene density and lowered gene expression. Roughly 60% of the predicted protein-coding genes have been functionally characterized on the basis of their homology to known genes. Many genes encode predicted proteins that are homologous to human and Caenorhabditis elegans proteins.