title: Recombinant SINEs are formed at high frequency during induced retrotransposition in                 vivo.
abstract: Non-long terminal repeat Retrotransposons are referred to as long interspersed                 nuclear elements (LINEs) and their non-autonomous partners are short interspersed                 nuclear elements (SINEs). It is believed that an active SINE copy, upon                 retrotransposition, generates near identical copies of itself, which subsequently                 accumulate mutations resulting in sequence polymorphism. Here we show that when a                 retrotransposition-competent cell line of the parasitic protist Entamoeba                     histolytica, transfected with a marked SINE copy, is induced to                 retrotranspose, >20% of the newly retrotransposed copies are neither                 identical to the marked SINE nor to the mobilized resident SINEs. Rather they are                 recombinants of resident SINEs and the marked SINE. They are a consequence of                 retrotransposition and not DNA recombination, as they are absent in cells not                 expressing the retrotransposition functions. This high-frequency recombination                 provides a new explanation for the existence of mosaic SINEs, which may impact on                 genetic analysis of SINE lineages, and measurement of phylogenetic distances.
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru                     University, New Delhi                 110067, India.
authors.forename: Vijay Pal
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Yadav
authors.forename: Prabhat Kumar
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Mandal
authors.forename: Alok
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bhattacharya
authors.forename: Sudha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bhattacharya
mesh_terms: D004748:Entamoeba histolytica / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D020084:Long Interspersed Nucleotide Elements / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D018626:Retroelements / Q000235:genetics; D020086:Short Interspersed Nucleotide Elements / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D018626:Retroelements