Evidence for the contribution of LTR retrotransposons to C. elegans gene evolution

LTR retrotransposons may be important contributors to host gene evolution because they contain regulatory and coding signals. In an effort to assess the possible contribution of LTR retrotransposons to C. elegans gene evolution, we searched upstream and downstream of LTR retrotransposon sequences fo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecular biology and evolution 2003-11, Vol.20 (11), p.1925-1931
Main Authors: Ganko, Eric W, Bhattacharjee, Vikram, Schliekelman, Paul, McDonald, John F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biological Evolution
Caenorhabditis elegans
Evolution, Molecular
Exons
Introns
Models, Genetic
Models, Statistical
Retroelements
retrotransposons
Terminal repeat sequence
Terminal Repeat Sequences
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:LTR retrotransposons may be important contributors to host gene evolution because they contain regulatory and coding signals. In an effort to assess the possible contribution of LTR retrotransposons to C. elegans gene evolution, we searched upstream and downstream of LTR retrotransposon sequences for the presence of predicted genes. Sixty-three percent of LTR retrotransposon sequences (79/124) are located within 1 kb of a gene or within gene boundaries. Most gene-retrotransposon associations were located along the chromosome arms. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that LTR retrotransposons have contributed to the structural and/or regulatory evolution of genes in C. elegans.
ISSN:0737-4038
1537-1719
DOI:10.1093/molbev/msg200