The origins of genomic duplications in Arabidopsis

Large segmental duplications cover much of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome. Little is known about their origins. We show that they are primarily due t o at Least four different Large-scale duplication events that occurred 100 to 200 million years ago. a formative period in the diversification of the angiosperms. A better understanding of the complex structural history of an giosperm genomes is necessary to make full use of Arabidopsis as a genetic model for other plant species.