Subtraction by addition: domesticated transposases in programmed DNA elimination.
The ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia must eliminate approximately 60,000 short sequences from its genome to generate uninterrupted coding sequences in its somatic macronucleus. In this issue of Genes & Development, Baudry and colleagues (pp. 2478-2483) identify the protein that excises these noncoding sequences: a domesticated piggyBac transposase that has been adapted to remove what are likely the remnants of transposon insertions. This new study reveals how addition of a transposase to small RNA-directed silencing machinery can guide major genome reorganization.
Motl
Jason A
JA
Biology Department, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA.
Chalker
Douglas L
DL
D000818:Animals; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000378:metabolism*; D016678:Genome / Q000235:genetics*; D048648:Macronucleus / Q000201:enzymology*; D016805:Paramecium tetraurelia / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics*; D034622:RNA Interference / Q000502:physiology; D019895:Transposases / Q000378:metabolism*
D016054:DNA, Protozoan; D019895:Transposases