Tourist: A Large Family of Small lnverted Repeat Frequently Associated with Maize Genes Elements
نویسندگان
چکیده
The wx-E2 mutation results from a 128-bp transposable element-like insertion in exon 11 of the maize Waxy gene. Surprisingly, 11 maize genes and one barley gene in the GenBank and EMBL data bases were found to contain similar elements in flanking or intron sequences. Members of this previously undescribed family of elements, designated Tourist, are short (133 bp on average), have conserved terminal inverted repeats, are flanked by a 3-bp direct repeat, and display target site specificity. Based on estimates of repetitiveness of three Tourist elements in maize genomic DNA, the copy number of the Tourist element family may exceed that of all previously reported eukaryotic inverted repeat elements. Taken together, our data suggest that Tourist may be the maize equivalent of the human Alu family of elements with respect to copy number, genomic dispersion, and the high frequency of association with genes.
منابع مشابه
Stowaway: A New Family of lnverted Repeat Elements Associated with the Genes of Both Monocotyledonous and Dicotyledonous Plants
Members of a new inverted repeat element family, named Stowaway, have been found in close association with more than 40 monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plant genes listed in the GenBank and EMBL nucleic acid data bases. Stowaway elements are characterized by a conserved terminal inverted repeat, small size, target site specificity (TA), and potential to form stable DNA secondary structures....
متن کاملInsertion preference of maize and rice miniature inverted repeat transposable elements as revealed by the analysis of nested elements.
A 128-bp insertion into the maize waxy-B2 allele led to the discovery of Tourist, a family of miniature inverted repeat transposable elements (MITEs). As a special category of nonautonomous elements, MITEs are distinguished by their high copy number, small size, and close association with plant genes. In maize, some Tourist elements (named Tourist-Zm) are present as adjacent or nested insertion...
متن کاملTc8, a Tourist-like transposon in Caenorhabditis elegans.
Members of the Tourist family of miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements (MITEs) are very abundant among a wide variety of plants, are frequently found associated with normal plant genes, and thus are thought to be important players in the organization and evolution of plant genomes. In Arabidopsis, the recent discovery of a Tourist member harboring a putative transposase has shed new l...
متن کاملP instability factor: an active maize transposon system associated with the amplification of Tourist-like MITEs and a new superfamily of transposases.
Miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements (MITEs) are widespread and abundant in both plant and animal genomes. Despite the discovery and characterization of many MITE families, their origin and transposition mechanism are still poorly understood, largely because MITEs are nonautonomous elements with no coding capacity. The starting point for this study was P instability factor (PIF), an ...
متن کاملStowaway: a new family of inverted repeat elements associated with the genes of both monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants.
Members of a new inverted repeat element family, named Stowaway, have been found in close association with more than 40 monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plant genes listed in the GenBank and EMBL nucleic acid data bases. Stowaway elements are characterized by a conserved terminal inverted repeat, small size, target site specificity (TA), and potential form stable DNA secondary structures. So...
متن کامل