Chen Yong, Zhou Fengfeng, Li Guojun, Xu Ying
Computational Systems Biology Laborator, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Institute of Bioinformatics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
Genetics. 2008 Aug;179(4):2291-7. doi: 10.1534/genetics.108.089995. Epub 2008 Jul 27.
Miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements (MITEs) are short DNA transposons with terminal inverted repeat (TIR) signals and have been extensively studied in plants and other eukaryotes. But little is known about them in eubacteria. We identified a novel and recently active MITE, Chunjie, when studying the recent duplication of an operon consisting of ABC transporters and a phosphate uptake regulator in the chromosome of Geobacter uraniireducens Rf4. Chunjie resembles the other known MITEs in many aspects, e.g., having TIR signals and direct repeats, small in size, noncoding, able to fold into a stable secondary structure, and typically inserted into A + T-rich regions. At least one case of recent transposition was observed, i.e., the insertion of Chunjie into one copy of the aforementioned operon. As far as we know, this is the first report that the insertion of a MITE does not disrupt the operon structure.
微型反向重复转座元件（MITEs）是一类具有末端反向重复（TIR）信号的短DNA转座子，已在植物和其他真核生物中得到广泛研究。但在真细菌中对它们的了解却很少。我们在研究嗜铀地杆菌Rf4染色体上由ABC转运蛋白和磷酸盐吸收调节因子组成的操纵子的近期复制时，鉴定出一种新型且近期活跃的MITE，名为“春杰”。“春杰”在许多方面与其他已知的MITE相似，例如，具有TIR信号和正向重复序列，尺寸小，非编码，能够折叠成稳定的二级结构，并且通常插入富含A+T的区域。观察到至少一例近期转座事件，即“春杰”插入到上述操纵子的一个拷贝中。据我们所知，这是关于MITE插入不破坏操纵子结构的首次报道。
