Relaxed DNA substrate specificity of transposases involved in programmed genome rearrangement.

ABSTRACT: During post-zygotic development, the ciliate Oxytricha trifallax undergoes massive programmed genome rearrangement that involves over 225,000 DNA cleavage and joining events. An Oxytricha family of Tc1/mariner transposons, known as Telomere-Bearing Elements (TBEs), encodes a transposase that has been implicated in rearrangement, but its high copy number (>34,000 paralogs) has precluded genetic strategies to investigate its DNA recognition properties directly in Oxytricha. Here, we developed a heterologous strategy to assay TBE transposase expression and activity in E. coli, revealing highly promiscuous DNA cleavage properties. Systematic ChIP-seq experiments allowed us to define the DNA binding specificities of multiple distinct transposase subfamilies, w

SUBMITTER: Walker MWG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11956929 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature