HeT-A and TART, two Drosophila retrotransposons with a bona fide role in chromosome structure for more than 60 million years.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Casacuberta E
PROVIDER: S-EPMC1188233 | biostudies-literature | 2005
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
HeT-A and TART, two Drosophila retrotransposons with a bona fide role in chromosome structure for more than 60 million years.
Cytogenetic and genome research 20050101 1-4
Drosophila telomeres have been maintained by retrotransposition for at least 60 MY, which predates the separation of extant species of this genus. Studies of D. melanogaster, D. yakuba, and D. virilis show that, in Drosophila, telomeres are composed of two non-LTR retrotransposons, HeT-A and TART. Far from being static, HeT-A and TART evolve faster than Drosophila euchromatic genes. In spite of their high rate of sequence change, HeT-A and TART maintain their basic structures and unusual individ ...[more]
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