Ogata H, Audic S, Barbe V, Artiguenave F, Fournier P E, Raoult D, Claverie J M
Information Génétique & Structurale, CNRS-AVENTIS UMR 1889, 31 Chemin Joseph Aiguier, 13402 Marseille Cedex 20, France.
Science. 2000 Oct 13;290(5490):347-50. doi: 10.1126/science.290.5490.347.
Rickettsia conorii, the aetiological agent of Mediterranean spotted fever, is an intracellular bacterium transmitted by ticks. Preliminary analyses of the nearly complete genome sequence of R. conorii have revealed 44 occurrences of a previously undescribed palindromic repeat (150 base pairs long) throughout the genome. Unexpectedly, this repeat was found inserted in-frame within 19 different R. conorii open reading frames likely to encode functional proteins. We found the same repeat in proteins of other Rickettsia species. The finding of a mobile element inserted in many unrelated genes suggests the potential role of selfish DNA in the creation of new protein sequences.
康氏立克次体是地中海斑疹热的病原体，是一种由蜱传播的细胞内细菌。对康氏立克次体近乎完整的基因组序列进行的初步分析显示，在整个基因组中出现了44次以前未描述过的回文重复序列（长度为150个碱基对）。出乎意料的是，该重复序列被发现以框内方式插入到19个不同的康氏立克次体开放阅读框中，这些开放阅读框可能编码功能蛋白。我们在其他立克次体物种的蛋白质中也发现了相同的重复序列。在许多不相关基因中插入移动元件的发现表明自私DNA在新蛋白质序列产生中可能发挥的作用。
