When Genomics Is Not Enough: Experimental Evidence for a Decrease in LINE-1 Activity During the Evolution of Australian Marsupials.

ABSTRACT: The autonomous transposable element LINE-1 is a highly abundant element that makes up between 15% and 20% of therian mammal genomes. Since their origin before the divergence of marsupials and placental mammals, LINE-1 elements have contributed actively to the genome landscape. A previous in silico screen of the Tasmanian devil genome revealed a lack of functional coding LINE-1 sequences. In this study we present the results of an in vitro analysis from a partial LINE-1 reverse transcriptase coding sequence in five marsupial species. Our experimental screen supports the in silico findings of the genome-wide degradation of LINE-1 sequences in the Tasmanian devil, and identifies a high frequency of degraded LINE-1 sequences in other Australian marsupials. The comparison between the experiment

SUBMITTER: Gallus S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5010896 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature