A deep-branching clade of retrovirus-like retrotransposons in bdelloid rotifers

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...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Gene 2007-04, Vol.390 (1), p.136-145
Main Authors: Gladyshev, Eugene A., Meselson, Matthew, Arkhipova, Irina R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adineta vaga
Amino Acid Sequence
Animals
Asexual reproduction
Base Sequence
Bdelloidea
DNA - genetics
env
Female
gag
Gene Dosage
Genes, env
Genes, gag
Genes, pol
Integrase
LTR retrotransposons
Male
Metazoa
Molecular Sequence Data
Philodina roseola
Phylogeny
pol
Retroelements
Retroviridae - genetics
Retroviridae - isolation & purification
Reverse transcriptase
Rotifera
Rotifera - classification
Rotifera - genetics
Rotifera - virology
Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
Terminal Repeat Sequences
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary: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 are 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 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.
ISSN:0378-1119
1879-0038
DOI:10.1016/j.gene.2006.09.025