Transposable Elements and Genome Expansion in Cultivated and Wild Potato and Tomato Species

Abstract

The sequence of potato and tomato genomes showed that repetitive sequences constitute high proportions of it. Transposable elements (TEs) and among them long terminal repeats (LTR) retrotransposons are the most abundant TEs in Solanum genomes. Biotic and abiotic stress induces the mobilization of TEs, possibly by the relaxation of epigenetic mechanisms, which alters gene expression due to the insertion of a TE inside or close to genes and generates novel phenotypes. This chapter highlights the importance of TEs as a source of phenotypic variation important to evolution and potato and tomato breeding.