hAT transposable elements and their derivatives: an analysis in the 12 Drosophila genomes

Transposable elements (TEs) comprise a significant fraction of the genome, and some models of the TE “life cycle” suggest that, in the last phases of the cycle, TEs should be represented, in the genomes, by inactive and degenerated copies. In this study, we analyzed, using a bioinformatics approach,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Genetica 2010-06, Vol.138 (6), p.649-655
Main Authors: de Freitas Ortiz, Mauro, Lorenzatto, Karina Rodrigues, Corrêa, Bruna Renata Silva, Loreto, Elgion Lucio Silva
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal Genetics and Genomics
Animals
Base Sequence
Bioinformatics
Biomedical and Life Sciences
DNA Transposable Elements - genetics
Drosophila
Drosophila - genetics
Evolutionary Biology
Genome, Insect
Human Genetics
Life Sciences
Microbial Genetics and Genomics
mites
Molecular Sequence Data
Non-autonomous elements
Plant Genetics and Genomics
Target site duplication
Transposable element
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Summary:Transposable elements (TEs) comprise a significant fraction of the genome, and some models of the TE “life cycle” suggest that, in the last phases of the cycle, TEs should be represented, in the genomes, by inactive and degenerated copies. In this study, we analyzed, using a bioinformatics approach, the autonomous hAT elements and their derivatives (active non-autonomous, MITE relatives and degenerated copies) in 12 Drosophila genomes. We found 28 hAT elements that had derivatives. Most copies had features that suggested that they were active, while only a few degenerated copies were found. Because hAT elements comprise an evolutionarily old superfamily, one should expect to find many degenerated copies within the genome, although this was not observed in our study. These results suggest that primarily active copies of hAT elements are maintained in the euchromatic regions of the genome and that degenerated copies are removed from the genome by natural selection.
ISSN:0016-6707
1573-6857
DOI:10.1007/s10709-010-9439-y