Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Author Posting. © The Authors, 2005. 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 371 (2006): 296-307, doi:10.1016/j.gene.2005.12.007.
Description:
Two novel families of non-LTR retrotransposons, named Syrinx and Daphne, were cloned and
characterized in a putative ancient asexual ostracod Darwinula stevensoni. Phylogenetic analysis reveals
that Daphne is the founding member of a novel clade of non-LTR retroelements, which also contains newly
described families from the sea urchin and the silkworm and forms a sister clade to L2-like elements. The
Syrinx family of non-LTR retrotransposons exhibits evidence of relatively recent activity, manifested in high
levels of sequence similarity between individual copies and a three- to ten-fold excess of synonymous
substitutions, which is indicative of purifying selection. The Daphne family may have very few copies with
intact open reading frames, and exhibits neutral within-family ratio of non-synonymous to synonymous
substitutions. It can additionally be characterized by formation of inverted truncated head-to-head
structures. All of these features make recent activity less likely than in the Syrinx family. Our results are
discussed in light of the evolutionary consequences of long-term asexuality in general and in Darwinula
stevensoni in particular.
Description:
I.S. acknowledges funding from the EC (Marie-Curie grant BIO-4-CT-98-5086)
and the Belgian OSTC (MO/36/005), and I.A. would like to thank the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Keywords:
Mobile genetic elements
;
Asexual reproduction
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Preprint
Format:
378994 bytes
Format:
application/pdf
Permalink