Kajikawa Masaki, Okada Norihiro
Graduate School of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan.
Cell. 2002 Nov 1;111(3):433-44. doi: 10.1016/s0092-8674(02)01041-3.
We characterized members of the LINE (UnaL2) and SINE (UnaSINE1) families from the eel genome and found that these LINE/SINE partners share similar 3' tails. A retrotransposition assay in HeLa cells demonstrated that the 3' conserved tail of UnaL2 is necessary for its retrotransposition. This 3' tail is recognized in trans by the UnaL2 reverse transcriptase at a surprisingly high rate, and that of UnaSINE1 can also be recognized, thus providing experimental evidence that a SINE can be mobilized by the retrotransposition machinery of a partner LINE. We also demonstrated that short repeats at the 3' end of UnaL2 are required for retrotransposition suggesting that UnaL2 retrotransposes in a manner reminiscent of the reverse transcriptase activity of telomerases.
我们对鳗鱼基因组中的长散在重复序列（UnaL2）和短散在重复序列（UnaSINE1）家族成员进行了特征分析，发现这些长散在重复序列/短散在重复序列伙伴具有相似的3'末端。在HeLa细胞中进行的逆转座分析表明，UnaL2的3'保守末端对其逆转座是必需的。UnaL2逆转录酶能以惊人的高频率反式识别该3'末端，UnaSINE1的3'末端也能被识别，从而提供了实验证据，证明短散在重复序列可被伙伴长散在重复序列的逆转座机制所动员。我们还证明，UnaL2的3'末端的短重复序列是逆转座所必需的，这表明UnaL2以类似于端粒酶逆转录酶活性的方式进行逆转座。
