Paulson K E, Deka N, Schmid C W, Misra R, Schindler C W, Rush M G, Kadyk L, Leinwand L
Nature. 1985;316(6026):359-61. doi: 10.1038/316359a0.
Mobile genetic elements have been reported in prokaryotes, plants, yeast and Drosophila. The only transposon-like sequences reported for mammalian organisms are closely related to retroviruses, although undoubtedly other transposon families exist within the mammalian genome. Although mobile genetic elements can only be identified as such if their mobility can be demonstrated in existing populations, transposon and transposon-like elements share several common biochemical and structural features. Here we demonstrate that a repetitive human sequence has many of the diagnostic features of transposable elements. This 2.3-kilobase (kb) transposon-like element contains two flanking long terminal repeat (LTR)-like 350-base pair (bp) repetitive sequences, each of which begins with the sequence 5' TG... and ends with ...CA 3'. The transposon-like element is bounded by 5-bp direct repeats. Discrete-length polyadenylated transcripts from HeLa cells are homologous to the transposon-like element. Members of this transposon-like family are found in extrachromosomal circular DNA molecules.
移动遗传元件已在原核生物、植物、酵母和果蝇中被报道。哺乳动物中报道的唯一类似转座子的序列与逆转录病毒密切相关，尽管哺乳动物基因组中无疑存在其他转座子家族。虽然移动遗传元件只有在其移动性能够在现有群体中得到证明时才能被识别，但转座子和类似转座子的元件具有一些共同的生化和结构特征。在这里，我们证明了一个人类重复序列具有许多转座元件的诊断特征。这个2.3千碱基（kb）的类似转座子的元件包含两个侧翼的长末端重复（LTR）样的350碱基对（bp）重复序列，每个序列以5'TG... 开头，以...CA 3' 结尾。类似转座子的元件由5碱基对的直接重复序列界定。来自HeLa细胞的离散长度的多聚腺苷酸化转录本与类似转座子的元件同源。这个类似转座子家族的成员存在于染色体外环状DNA分子中。
