A Novel Terminal-Repeat Retrotransposon in Miniature (TRIM) Is Massively Expressed in Echinococcus multilocularis Stem Cells.

ABSTRACT: Taeniid cestodes (including the human parasites Echinococcus spp. and Taenia solium) have very few mobile genetic elements (MGEs) in their genome, despite lacking a canonical PIWI pathway. The MGEs of these parasites are virtually unexplored, and nothing is known about their expression and silencing. In this work, we report the discovery of a novel family of small nonautonomous long terminal repeat retrotransposons (also known as terminal-repeat retrotransposons in miniature, TRIMs) which we have named ta-TRIM (taeniid TRIM). ta-TRIMs are only the second family of TRIM elements discovered in animals, and are likely the result of convergent reductive evolution in different taxonomic groups. These elements originated at the base of the taeniid tree and have expanded during taeniid diversific

SUBMITTER: Koziol U 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4558846 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature