Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 8, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00527-2
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- CREST, JST [JPMJCR13W3]
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [16H06279, 16H06429, 16H06433, 15H04427, 16K15280, 26293102] Funding Source: KAKEN
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Mobile genetic elements (e.g., transposable elements and viruses) display significant diversity with various life cycles, but how novel elements emerge remains obscure. Here, we report a giant (180-kb long) transposon, Teratorn, originally identified in the genome of medaka, Oryzias latipes. Teratorn belongs to the piggyBac superfamily and retains the transposition activity. Remarkably, Teratorn is largely derived from a herpesvirus of the Alloherpesviridae family that could infect fish and amphibians. Genomic survey of Teratorn-like elements reveals that some of them exist as a fused form between piggyBac transposon and herpesvirus genome in teleosts, implying the generality of transposon-herpesvirus fusion. We propose that Teratorn was created by a unique fusion of DNA transposon and herpesvirus, leading to life cycle shift. Our study supports the idea that recombination is the key event in generation of novel mobile genetic elements.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available