34 experts examined challenging repetitive DNA

In addition to genes, DNA of every organism possesses also several hunderds, thousands, or more copies of usually short and non-coding regions - so-called repetitive sequences. How many repetitive sequences can be within individual species or taxon, how evolution is acting on these repeats, and why is the repetitive DNA so abundant? These were the questions which were examined by the participants of "The 6th Workshop on the Application of Next Generation Sequencing to Repetitive DNA Analysis in Plants" (May 23rd - 25th).

Totally 34 scientist from Czech republic, UK, Germany, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, Croatia, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, and the USA presented not only their own results using program RepeatExplorer, developed by the department of Plant molecular cytogenetics of IPMB. They have also improved their skills in using this program, and have become familiar with new program TAREAN from the same team, which further improves clustering and characterization of repetitive sequences. 

More detailed information about the workshop, including selected presentations and photogallery, can be found on the workshop pages.