Convergence of retrotransposons in oomycetes and plants.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Retrotransposons comprise a ubiquitous and abundant class of eukaryotic transposable elements. All members of this class rely on reverse transcriptase activity to produce a DNA copy of the element from the RNA template. However, other activities of the retrotransposon-encoded polyprotein may differ between diverse retrotransposons. The polyprotein domains corresponding to each of these activities may have their own evolutionary history independent from that of the reverse transcriptase, thus underlying the modular view on the evolution of retrotransposons. Furthermore, some transposable elements can independently evolve similar domain architectures by acquiring functionally similar but phylogenetically distinct modules. This convergent evolution of retrotransposons may u

SUBMITTER: Ustyantsev K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5348765 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature