A deep-branching clade of retrovirus-like retrotransposons in bdelloid rotifers
A deep-branching clade of retrovirus-like retrotransposons in bdelloid rotifers
Date
2006-09-12
Authors
Gladyshev, Eugene A.
Meselson, Matthew
Arkhipova, Irina R.
Meselson, Matthew
Arkhipova, Irina R.
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Keywords
LTR retrotransposons
Asexual reproduction
Reverse transcriptase
Integrase
Gag
Pol
Env
Asexual reproduction
Reverse transcriptase
Integrase
Gag
Pol
Env
Abstract
Rotifers of class Bdelloidea, a group of aquatic invertebrates in which males and meiosis
have never been documented, are also unusual in their lack of multicopy LINE-like and
gypsy-like retrotransposons, groups inhabiting the genomes of nearly all other
metazoans. Bdelloids do contain numerous DNA transposons, both intact and decayed,
and domesticated Penelope-like retroelements Athena, concentrated at telomeric
regions. Here we describe two LTR retrotransposons, each found at low copy number in
a different bdelloid species, which define a clade different from previously known clades
of LTR retrotransposons. Like bdelloid DNA transposons and Athena, these elements
have been found preferentially in telomeric regions. Unlike bdelloid DNA transposons,
many of which are decayed, the newly described elements, named Vesta and Juno,
inhabiting the genomes of Philodina roseola and Adineta vaga, respectively, appear to
be intact and to represent recent insertions, possibly from an exogenous source. We
describe the retrovirus-like structure of the new elements, containing gag, pol, and env-like
open reading frames, and discuss their possible origins, transmission, and behavior
in bdelloid genomes.
Description
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2006. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Gene 390 (2007): 136-145, doi:10.1016/j.gene.2006.09.025.