Evolutionary BiologybioRxiv
Replicators, genes, and the C-value enigma: High-quality genome assembly of barley provides directevidence that self-replicating DNA forms 'cooperative' associations with genes in arms races
M. T. Rabanus-Wallace, T. Wicker, N. Stein
The paper uses high-quality barley genome assembly to show that genes involved in evolutionary arms races are associated with self-replicating DNA elements, suggesting tolerance of repeat-inducing sequences is an adaptive strategy.
DOI 10.1186/s12870-025-07328-6