Isolation of the closed circular form of the transposable element Tc1 in Caenorhabditis elegans

• Published in: Nature (London) 1984-01, Vol.311 (5985), p.485-486
• Main Authors: Rose, A.M, Snutch, T.P
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Caenorhabditis - genetics; Caenorhabditis elegans; Chromosome Mapping; DNA Restriction Enzymes; DNA Transposable Elements; DNA, Circular - isolation & purification; Extrachromosomal Inheritance; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; genes; Genic rearrangement. Recombination. Transposable element; Humanities and Social Sciences; letter; Molecular and cellular biology; Molecular genetics; multidisciplinary; Nematoda; Science; Science (multidisciplinary)
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/311485a0

The mobilization of Tc 1 , a transposable element in the genome of the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans , has been investigated. Genomic blot hybridization has shown that Tc 1 exists in very different numbers in the genomes of two closely related strains of C. elegans 1,2 : there are ∼30 copies of Tc 1 in the Bristol strain, whereas in the Bergerac strain there are 200–300. Most of these Tc 1 elements are structurally highly conserved 1–3 although there exists a second form which contains a Hin dIII restriction site (Tc 1 ( Hin ) form) and comprises ∼10% of the population 4 . Excision of Tc 1 from its chromosomal location in the Bergerac strain is indicated by the presence, on genomic blots, of a minor band corresponding to the size of the uninserted restriction fragment 1,5,6 . Here we describe the recovery of extrachromosomal linear and closed circular copies of Tc 1 from the Bergerac strain, presumably a result of Tc 1 excision.