Identification of novel MITEs (miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements) in Coxiella burnetii: implications for protein and small RNA evolution.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Coxiella burnetii is a Gram-negative gammaproteobacterium and zoonotic agent of Q fever. C. burnetii's genome contains an abundance of pseudogenes and numerous selfish genetic elements. MITEs (miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements) are non-autonomous transposons that occur in all domains of life and are thought to be insertion sequences (ISs) that have lost their transposase function. Like most transposable elements (TEs), MITEs are thought to play an active role in evolution by altering gene function and expression through insertion and deletion activities. However, information regarding bacterial MITEs is limited.

Results

We describe two MITE families discovered during research on small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs) of C. burnetii. Two sRNAs, Cbsr3 and Cbsr1

SUBMITTER: Wachter S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5896051 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature