**Genome-Wide Distribution of Novel Ta-3A1 Mini-Satellite Repeats and Its Use for Chromosome Identification in Wheat and Related Species**

**Tao Lang 1, Guangrong Li 1,\*, Zhihui Yu 1, Jiwei Ma 1, Qiheng Chen 1, Ennian Yang 2 and Zujun Yang 1,\***


Received: 14 January 2019; Accepted: 28 January 2019; Published: 29 January 2019

**Abstract:** A large proportion of the genomes of grasses is comprised of tandem repeats (TRs), which include satellite DNA. A mini-satellite DNA sequence with a length of 44 bp, named Ta-3A1, was found to be highly accumulated in wheat genome, as revealed by a comprehensive sequence analysis. The physical distribution of Ta-3A1 in chromosomes 3A, 5A, 5B, 5D, and 7A of wheat was confirmed by nondenaturing fluorescence in situ hybridization (ND-FISH) after labeling the oligonucleotide probe. The analysis of monomer variants indicated that rapid sequence amplification of Ta-3A1 occurred first on chromosomes of linkage group 5, then groups 3 and 7. Comparative ND-FISH analysis suggested that rapid changes occurred in copy number and chromosomal locations of Ta-3A1 among the different species in the tribe Triticeae, which may have been associated with chromosomal rearrangements during speciation and polyploidization. The labeling and subsequent use of Ta-3A1 by ND-FISH may assist in the precise identification and documentation of novel wheat germplasm engineered by chromosome manipulation.

**Keywords:** fluorescence in situ hybridization; mini-satellite; tandem repeats; wheat
