Evidence of extensive non-allelic gene conversion among LTR elements in the human genome.

ABSTRACT: Long Terminal Repeats (LTRs) are nearly identical DNA sequences found at either end of Human Endogenous Retroviruses (HERVs). The high sequence similarity that exists among different LTRs suggests they could be substrate of ectopic gene conversion events. To understand the extent to which gene conversion occurs and to gain new insights into the evolutionary history of these elements in humans, we performed an intra-species phylogenetic study of 52 LTRs on different unrelated Y chromosomes. From this analysis, we obtained direct evidence that demonstrates the occurrence of ectopic gene conversion in several LTRs, with donor sequences located on both sex chromosomes and autosomes. We also found that some of these elements are characterized by an extremely high density of polymorphisms, showi

SUBMITTER: Trombetta B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4921805 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature