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Titel:
Structural and evolutionary analysis of the transcribed sequence of
Boudicca, a Schistosoma mansoni retrotransposon
Author(s):
Claudia S. Copeland,
Oliver Heyers,
Bernd H. Kalinna,
Andreas Bachmair,
Peter F. Stadler,
Ivo L. Hofacker,
Paul J. Brindley
Appeared in:
Gene 329: 103-114 (2004)
Abstract:
Boudicca is a gypsy-like, long terminal repeat (LTR)
retrotransposon that has colonized the genome of the human blood fluke,
Schistosoma mansoni. Previous studies have indicated that more
than 1000 copies of Boudicca reside within the S. mansoni
genome, although many of them may be degenerate and inactive. Messenger
RNAs transcribed from proviral, genomic copies of Boudicca were
investigated by reverse-transcription PCR. Overlapping RTPCR products
corresponding to the gag and pol polyproteins of
Boudicca, along with relevant sequences of genomic fragments of
Boudicca, were assembled into contigs. Consensus sequences from
these contigs were used to predict the sequence and structure of
transpositionally active copies of the Boudicca
retrotransposon. They verified that Boudicca has a
kabuki-like Cys-His box motif at the active site of its gag
protein, a classic DTG motif as the active site of the protease domain of
the pol ORF2, and indicated a contiguous integrase domain at the Cterminus
of pol with strong identity to integrase from the LTR retrotransposons
CsRn1 and kabuki, as well as to the Genbank conserved domain rve (pfam
00665) integrase core domain. Models of the secondary structure of the
Boudicca transcript suggested that the first AUG was occluded by a
stem loop structure, which in turn suggested a method of regulation of
expression of Boudicca proteins at the level of translation. In
addition, phylogenetic analysis targeting discrete domains of
Boudicca revealed a generalized radiation in sequences among the
multiple copies of Boudicca resident in the schistosome genome.
Keywords:
Long terminal repeat (LTR), secondary structure,
post-transcriptional regulation, multiple AUG codons,
CsRn1, Kabuki
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Last modified: 2004-05-05 14:31:15 ivo