title: TCl4.7: a novel lepidopteran transposon found in Cydia pomonella granulosis virus.
abstract: After the co-infection of larvae of the lepidopteran Cryptophlebia leucotreta with the two baculoviruses C. leucotreta granulosis virus and Cydia pomonella granulosis virus (CIGV and CpGV, respectively), three CpGV mutants and one CIGV mutant carrying insertions of 0.9 to 4.7 kb have been isolated. By cloning, sequencing, and hybridization analysis, one of these insertions was identified as a transposon-like element derived from the C. leucotreta genome. This element, called TCl4.7, was found in the genome of CpGV which naturally replicates in C. pomonella. Sequence analysis suggested that TCl4.7 is 4726 bp in size, flanked by imperfect inverted terminal repeats of 29 bp, and integrated into the target dinucleotide TA. TCl4.7 encompasses an open reading frame sharing homologies to transposase genes of the Tc1-related transposable elements found in Caenorhabditis and in Drosophila species. The open reading frame might represent a pseudogene since it is missing an ATG start codon. The integration site of TCl4.7 is located in a non-protein-coding region of the CpGV genome at m.u. 9.5. In bioassays the TCl4.7-carrying virus and all the other mutants except for one showed LC50 values similar to those of CpGV and CIGV. This is the first report of the horizontal escape of a transposable element during the in vivo infection of lepidopteran larvae by granulosis viruses.
authors.affiliation: Biologische Bundesanstalt für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Institut für Biochemie und Pflanzenvirologie, Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Jehle
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fritsch
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nickel
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huber
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Backhaus
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D016367:Baculoviridae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D007915:Lepidoptera / Q000821:virology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D009154:Mutation; D009713:Nucleotidyltransferases / Q000235:genetics; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D019895:Transposases
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004279:DNA, Viral; D009713:Nucleotidyltransferases; D019895:Transposases