title: Transposition of Mboumar-9: identification of a new naturally active mariner-family transposon.
abstract: Although mariner transposons are widespread in animal genomes, the vast majority harbor multiple inactivating mutations and only two naturally occurring elements are known to be active. Previously, we discovered a mariner-family transposon, Mboumar, in the satellite DNA of the ant Messor bouvieri. Several copies of the transposon contain a full-length open reading frame, including Mboumar-9, which has 64% nucleotide identity to Mos1 of Drosophila mauritiana. To determine whether Mboumar is currently active, we expressed and purified the Mboumar-9 transposase and demonstrate that it is able to catalyze the movement of a transposon from one plasmid to another in a genetic in vitro hop assay. The efficiency is comparable to that of the well-characterized mariner transposon Mos1. Transposon insertions were precise and were flanked by TA duplications, a hallmark of mariner transposition. Mboumar has been proposed to have a role in the evolution and maintenance of satellite DNA in M. bouvieri and its activity provides a means to examine the involvement of the transposon in the genome dynamics of this organism.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biología Experimental, Area de Genética, Universidad de Jaén, 23071 Jaén, Spain.
authors.forename: Martín
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muñoz-López
authors.forename: Azeem
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Siddique
authors.forename: Julien
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bischerour
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lorite
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chalmers
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Palomeque
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001483:Base Sequence; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics*; D004276:DNA, Satellite / Q000235:genetics; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D017344:Genes, Insect; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D019895:Transposases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004276:DNA, Satellite; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D019476:Insect Proteins; C111652:mariner transposases; D019895:Transposases