Investigation of the activity of transposable elements and genes involved in their silencing in the newt Cynops orientalis, a species with a giant genome.

ABSTRACT: Caudata is an order of amphibians with great variation in genome size, which can reach enormous dimensions in salamanders. In this work, we analysed the activity of transposable elements (TEs) in the transcriptomes obtained from female and male gonads of the Chinese fire-bellied newt, Cynops orientalis, a species with a genome about 12-fold larger than the human genome. We also compared these data with genomes of two basal sarcopterygians, coelacanth and lungfish. In the newt our findings highlighted a major impact of non-LTR retroelements and a greater total TE activity compared to the lungfish Protopterus annectens, an organism also characterized by a giant genome. This difference in TE activity might be due to the presence of young copies in newt in agreement also with the increase in t

SUBMITTER: Carducci F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8292531 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature