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An actively retrotransposing, novel subfamily of mouse L1 elements
Author(s) -
Naas Thierry P.,
DeBerardinis Ralph J.,
Moran John V.,
Ostertag Eric M.,
Kingsmore Stephen F.,
Seldin Michael F.,
Hayashizaki Yoshihide,
Martin Sandra L.,
Kazazian Haig H.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.1093/emboj/17.2.590
Subject(s) - biology , subfamily , genetics , computational biology , evolutionary biology , gene
Retrotransposition of LINEs and other retroelements increases repetition in mammalian genomes and can cause deleterious mutations. Recent insertions of two full‐length L1s, L1 spa and L1 Orl , caused the disease phenotypes of the spastic and Orleans reeler mice respectively. Here we show that these two recently retrotransposed L1s are nearly identical in sequence, have two open reading frames and belong to a novel subfamily related to the ancient F subfamily. We have named this new subfamily T F (for transposable) and show that many full‐length members of this family are present in the mouse genome. The T F 5′ untranslated region has promoter activity, and T F ‐type RNA is abundant in cytoplasmic ribonucleoprotein particles, which are likely intermediates in retrotransposition. Both L1 spa and L1 Orl have reverse transcriptase activity in a yeast‐based assay and retrotranspose at high frequency in cultured cells. Together, our data indicate that the T F subfamily of L1s contains a major class of mobile elements that is expanding in the mouse genome.