Transduplication resulted in the incorporation of two protein-coding sequences into the turmoil-1 transposable element of C. elegans.
Transposable elements may acquire unrelated gene fragments into their sequences in a process called transduplication. Transduplication of protein-coding genes is common in plants, but is unknown of in animals. Here, we report that the Turmoil-1 transposable element in C. elegans has incorporated two protein-coding sequences into its inverted terminal repeat (ITR) sequences. The ITRs of Turmoil-1 contain a conserved RNA recognition motif (RRM) that originated from the rsp-2 gene and a fragment from the protein-coding region of the cpg-3 gene. We further report that an open reading frame specific to C. elegans may have been created as a result of a Turmoil-1 insertion. Mutations at the 5' splice site of this open reading frame may have reactivated the transduplicated RRM motif.
Sela
Noa
N
Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel. noasela@post.tau.ac.il
Stern
Adi
A
Makalowski
Wojciech
W
Pupko
Tal
T
Ast
Gil
G
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D002417:Cattle; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics*; D004285:Dogs; D020440:Gene Duplication; D006801:Humans; D055029:Inverted Repeat Sequences / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames / Q000235:genetics*; D011817:Rabbits; D051381:Rats; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D020079:Terminal Repeat Sequences / Q000235:genetics; D019895:Transposases / Q000235:genetics
D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D019895:Transposases