title: Characterization of new hAT transposable elements in 12 Drosophila genomes.
abstract: In silico searches for sequences homologous to hAT elements in 12 Drosophila genomes have allowed us to identify 37 new hAT elements (8 in D. ananassae, 11 in D. mojavensis, 2 in D. sechellia, 1 in D. simulans, 2 in D. virilis, 3 in D. yakuba, 3 in D. persimilis, 1 in D. grimshawi, 5 in D. willistoni and 1 in D. pseudobscura). The size of these elements varies from 2,359 to 4,962 bp and the terminal inverted repeats (TIRs) show lengths ranging from 10 to 24 bp. Several elements show intact transposase ORFs, suggesting that they are active. Conserved amino acid motifs were identified that correspond to those important for transposase activity. These elements are highly variable and phylogenetic analysis showed that they can be clustered into four different families. Incongruencies were observed between the phylogenies of the transposable elements and those of their hosts, suggesting that horizontal transfer may have occurred between some of the species.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Freitas Ortiz
authors.forename: Elgion Lucio Silva
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Loreto
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D018389:Codon, Nonsense / Q000032:analysis; D016384:Consensus Sequence / Q000235:genetics; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D001330:Electronic Data Processing; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal; D049750:Genome, Insect; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013045:Species Specificity; D020079:Terminal Repeat Sequences; D019895:Transposases / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D016335:Zinc Fingers / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D018389:Codon, Nonsense; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D019895:Transposases; C473489:hobo-T protein, Drosophila