Genetics, Vol. 162, 1617-1630, December 2002, Copyright © 2002

kangaroo, a Mobile Element From Volvox carteri, Is a Member of a Newly Recognized Third Class of Retrotransposons

Leonard Duncana, Kristine Bouckaerta, Fay Yeha, and David L. Kirka
a Department of Biology, Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri 63130

Corresponding author: Leonard Duncan, Inc., 1502 Viceroy Dr., Dallas, TX 75235., len.duncan{at}cumbre.net (E-mail)

Communicating editor: D. J. GRUNWALD

Retrotransposons play an important role in the evolution of genomic structure and function. Here we report on the characterization of a novel retrotransposon called kangaroo from the multicellular green alga, Volvox carteri. kangaroo elements are highly mobile and their expression is developmentally regulated. They probably integrate via double-stranded, closed-circle DNA intermediates through the action of an encoded recombinase related to the {lambda}-site-specific integrase. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that kangaroo elements are closely related to other unorthodox retrotransposons including PAT (from a nematode), DIRS-1 (from Dictyostelium), and DrDIRS1 (from zebrafish). PAT and kangaroo both contain split direct repeat (SDR) termini, and here we show that DIRS-1 and DrDIRS1 elements contain terminal features structurally related to SDRs. Thus, these mobile elements appear to define a third class of retrotransposons (the DIRS1 group) that are unified by common structural features, genes, and integration mechanisms, all of which differ from those of LTR and conventional non-LTR retrotransposons.




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