Open AccessDrosophila telomere transposon HeT-A produces a transcript with tightly bound protein.
Author(s) -
Olga N. Danilevskaya,
Franchot Slot,
Karen L. Traverse,
N. Catherine Hogan,
Mary Lou Pardue
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.91.14.6679
Subject(s) - transposable element , telomere , biology , transposition (logic) , rna , p element , dna , genetics , telomerase , gene , microbiology and biotechnology , genome , linguistics , philosophy
Telomeres from Drosophila appear to be very different from those of other organisms. A transposable element, HeT-A, plays a major role in forming telomeres and may be the sole structural element, since telomerase-generated repeats are not found. The structure of the HeT-A element, deduced from cloned fragments of DNA, suggests that transposition of the element is mediated by a polyadenylylated RNA intermediate. We now report analyses of HeT-A transcripts. The major RNA is of the appropriate size and strandedness to serve as a transposition intermediate. This RNA is found in cultured cells and in intact flies and is unusual in that it is associated with protein after treatments that apparently remove all protein from other RNAs.