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Horizontal transmission of an R4 clade non‐long terminal repeat retrotransposon between the divergent A edes and A nopheles mosquito genera
Author(s) -
Biedler J. K.,
Chen X.,
Tu Z.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
insect molecular biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.955
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-2583
pISSN - 0962-1075
DOI - 10.1111/imb.12160
Subject(s) - biology , anopheles gambiae , retrotransposon , clade , anopheles , aedes aegypti , aedes , genetics , zoology , genome , phylogenetics , gene , botany , transposable element , malaria , larva , immunology
AaegR4 _1 and AgamR4 _1 are the sole R4 clade non‐long terminal repeat (non‐ LTR ) retrotransposons in A edes aegypti and A nopheles gambiae , two species that diverged approximately 145–200 million years ago. Twelve full‐length copies were found in Ae . aegypti and have less than 1% nucleotide (nt) divergence, suggesting recent activity on an evolutionary time scale. Five of these copies have intact open reading frames and the 3.6 kb open reading frame of AaegR4 _1.1 has 78% nt identity to AgamR4 _1.1 . No intact copies were found in A n. gambiae . Searches of 25 genomic databases for 22 mosquito species from three genera revealed R4 clade representatives in A edes and A nopheles genera but not in C ulex . Interestingly, these elements are present in all six species of the A n. gambiae species complex that were searched but not in 13 other anopheline species. These results combined with divergence vs. age analysis suggest that horizontal transfer is the most likely explanation for the low divergence between R4 clade retrotransposon sequences of the divergent mosquito species from the A edes and A nopheles genera. This is the first report of the horizontal transfer of an R4 clade non‐ LTR retrotransposon and the first report of the horizontal transfer of a non‐ LTR retrotransposon in mosquitoes.