title: A Helitron transposon reconstructed from bats reveals a novel mechanism of genome shuffling in eukaryotes.
abstract: Helitron transposons capture and mobilize gene fragments in eukaryotes, but experimental evidence for their transposition is lacking in the absence of an isolated active element. Here we reconstruct Helraiser, an ancient element from the bat genome, and use this transposon as an experimental tool to unravel the mechanism of Helitron transposition. A hairpin close to the 3'-end of the transposon functions as a transposition terminator. However, the 3'-end can be bypassed by the transposase, resulting in transduction of flanking sequences to new genomic locations. Helraiser transposition generates covalently closed circular intermediates, suggestive of a replicative transposition mechanism, which provides a powerful means to disseminate captured transcriptional regulatory signals across the genome. Indeed, we document the generation of novel transcripts by Helitron promoter capture both experimentally and by transcriptome analysis in bats. Our results provide mechanistic insight into Helitron transposition, and its impact on diversification of gene function by genome shuffling.
authors.affiliation: Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, 13125 Berlin, Germany.|Laboratory of Molecular Biology, NIDDK, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Ivana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Grabundzija
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Biology, NIDDK, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Simon A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Messing
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA.
authors.forename: Jainy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA.
authors.forename: Rachel L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Cosby
authors.affiliation: Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, 13125 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Ilija
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bilic
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical Biotechnology, Paul Ehrlich Institute, 63225 Langen, Germany.
authors.forename: Csaba
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Miskey
authors.affiliation: German Center of Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), 04103 Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Germany.|Institute of Computer Science, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 06099 Halle, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gogol-Döring
authors.affiliation: Genetic Information Research Institute, Los Altos, California 94022, USA.
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kapitonov
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical Biotechnology, Paul Ehrlich Institute, 63225 Langen, Germany.
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Diem
authors.affiliation: Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, 13125 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dalda
authors.affiliation: Genetic Information Research Institute, Los Altos, California 94022, USA.
authors.forename: Jerzy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jurka
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA.
authors.forename: Ellen J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Pritham
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Biology, NIDDK, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Fred
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dyda
authors.affiliation: Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, 13125 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Zsuzsanna
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Izsvák
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical Biotechnology, Paul Ehrlich Institute, 63225 Langen, Germany.
authors.forename: Zoltán
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ivics
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000235:genetics*; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016678:Genome; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements