Nucleotide Combination Proportions Across Algae, Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons: Insights into Plant Genome Evolution

Plant evolution started with unicellular algae, gradually evolving multicellularity and terrestrial colonization. These evolutionary events were accompanied by the interplay of chromosome polyploidization, rearrangement, gene loss, and point mutation. We counted the proportion of nucleotide combinations in the genome sequences of 64 sequenced plants, and analyzed the significant difference in these nucleotide combination proportions among algae, monocotyledons and dicotyledons. The correlation of highly significant different and no significant different nucleotide combinations was analyzed respectively. Nucleotide combinations and their reverse complementary sequence proportions were analyzed in different functional regions of the genome. These results reveal that some nucleotide combinations are subject to strict selection, and these combinations have a higher proportion in the CDS regions and lower proportion in the intergenic regions. Meanwhile, there are some nucleotide combinations that are under less selective pressure, and these combinations have a higher proportion in the intergenic regions and lower proportion in the CDS regions. Cluster analysis based on trinucleotide to octanucleotide combination proportions reveals that plant genome evolution is accompanied by clade-wide differentiation of genome-wide nucleotide composition patterns, in addition to well-documented chromosomal polyploidization, structural rearrangement and gene loss events. We analyzed the changes in the proportion of nucleotide combinations at the genome level in 64 sequenced plants, providing a new idea for studying genome evolution in the plant kingdom.