title: Molecular dissection of Penelope transposable element regulatory machinery.
abstract: Penelope-like elements (PLEs) represent a new class of retroelements identified in more than 80 species belonging to at least 10 animal phyla. Penelope isolated from Drosophila virilis is the only known transpositionally active representative of this class. Although the size and structure of the Penelope major transcript has been previously described in both D. virilis and D. melanogaster transgenic strains, the architecture of the Penelope regulatory region remains unknown. In order to determine the localization of presumptive Penelope promoter and enhancer-like elements, segments of the putative Penelope regulatory region were linked to a CAT reporter gene and introduced into D. melanogaster by P-element-mediated transformation. The results obtained using ELISA to measure CAT expression levels and RNA studies, including RT-PCR, suggest that the active Penelope transposon contains an internal promoter similar to the TATA-less promoters of LINEs. The results also suggest that some of the Penelope regulatory sequences control the preferential expression in the ovaries of the adult flies by enhancing expression in the ovary and reducing expression in the carcass. The possible significance of the intron within Penelope for the function and evolution of PLEs, and the effect of Penelope insertions on adjacent genes, are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology RAS, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Nataliya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Schostak
authors.forename: Konstantin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pyatkov
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zelentsova
authors.forename: Irina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Arkhipova
authors.forename: Dmitrii
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shagin
authors.forename: Irina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Shagina
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mudrik
authors.forename: Anatolii
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blintsov
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Finnegan
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Evgen'ev
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D001483:Base Sequence; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics; D004742:Enhancer Elements, Genetic; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010053:Ovary / Q000378:metabolism; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D018626:Retroelements; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; D018626:Retroelements