Nature Genetics 33, 123 - 124 (2003)
Published online: 13 January 2003; | doi:10.1038/ng1074
Retroelements containing introns in diverse invertebrate taxaIrina R. Arkhipova1, 4, Konstantin I. Pyatkov2, 4, Matthew Meselson1
& Michael B. Evgen'ev2, 31
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. 2
Institute of Cell Biophysics, Pushino, Russia. 3
Institute of Molecular Biology, Moscow, Russia. 4
These two authors contributed equally to this work.
Correspondence should be addressed to Matthew Meselson msm@wjh.harvard.edu AF418571AY179351AY179364BK000685We report that two structurally similar transposable elements containing reverse transcriptase (RT), Penelope in Drosophila virilis and Athena in bdelloid rotifers, have proliferated as copies containing introns. The ability of Penelope-like elements (PLEs) to retain introns, their separate phylogenetic placement and their peculiar structural features make them a novel class of eukaryotic retroelements.
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