title: Afut1, a retrotransposon-like element from Aspergillus fumigatus.
abstract: A repeated DNA sequence used for epidemiological studies of the human opportunistic pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus has been characterized. It is a retroelement of 6914 bp in length, bounded by long terminal repeats of 282 bp, with sequence and features characteristic of retroviruses and retrotransposons. A 5 bp duplication site was found at its borders. This element, designated Afut1, encodes amino acid sequences homologous to the reverse transcriptase, RNase H and endonuclease encoded by the pol genes of retroelements. Comparison of the peptidic sequences with other putative polypeptides of fungal LTR retrotransposons showed that Afut1 is a member of the gypsy group. This is the first report of a transposable element in A.fumigatus. Afut1 is a defective element: the putative coding domains contain multiple stop codons due exclusively to transitions from C:G to T:A.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire des Aspergillus, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Neuveglise
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sarfati
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Latge
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Paris
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001232:Aspergillus fumigatus / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D004271:DNA, Fungal; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D018628:Gene Dosage; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D018626:Retroelements; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: C099375:Afut1 protein, Aspergillus fumigatus; D004271:DNA, Fungal; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D018626:Retroelements