TAHRE, a novel telomeric retrotransposon from Drosophila melanogaster, reveals the origin of Drosophila telomeres.
Drosophila telomeres do not have typical telomerase repeats. Instead, two families of non-LTR retrotransposons, HeT-A and TART, maintain telomere length by occasional transposition to the chromosome ends. Despite the work on Drosophila telomeres, its evolutionary origin remains controversial. Herein we describe a novel telomere-specific retroelement that we name TAHRE (Telomere-Associated and HeT-A-Related Element). The structure of the three telomere-specific elements indicates a common ancestor. These results suggest that preexisting transposable elements were recruited to perform the cellular function of telomere maintenance. A recruitment similar to that of a retrotransposal reverse transcriptase has been suggested as the common origin of telomerases.
Abad
José P
JP
De Pablos
Beatriz
B
Osoegawa
Kazutoyo
K
De Jong
Pieter J
PJ
Martín-Gallardo
Antonia
A
Villasante
Alfredo
A
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D022202:Chromosomes, Artificial, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D018626:Retroelements / Q000235:genetics*; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics*
D018626:Retroelements