Acquisition of an Archaea-like ribonuclease H domain by plant L1 retrotransposons supports modular evolution.

ABSTRACT: Although a variety of non-LTR retrotransposons of the L1 superfamily have been found in plant genomes over recent decades, their diversity, distribution, and evolution have yet to be analyzed in depth. Here, we perform comprehensive comparative and evolutionary analyses of L1 retrotransposons from 29 genomes of land plants covering a wide range of taxa. We identify numerous L1 elements in these genomes and detect a striking diversity of their domain composition. We show that all known land plant L1 retrotransposons can be grouped into five major families based on their phylogenetic relationships and domain composition. Moreover, we trace the putative evolution timeline that created the current variants and reveal that evolutionary events included losses and acquisitions of diverse putative

SUBMITTER: Smyshlyaev G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3864347 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature