Acquisition of an Archaea-like ribonuclease H domain by plant L1 retrotransposons supports modular evolution

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1310958110
• Publication Date: 2013-11-26T05:14:48Z
• Authors: Georgy Smyshlyaev; Franka Voigt; Alexander Blinov; Orsolya Barabas; Olga Novikova
• Keywords: Retrotransposon; RNase H; Three-domain system

Significance Transposons are jumping genes that constitute a sizeable fraction of eukaryotic genomes. They drive genome evolution and can cause genetic diseases cancer. Although transposons were first discovered in plants much our knowledge about them stems from plants, the most abundant human transposon, L1, has barely been investigated plants. In this study, we identify plant L1 retrotransposons variety genomes show that, similar to viruses, they evolved modular fashion by gaining losing various protein-coding domains. Moreover, find L1s carry an active Archaea-like ribonuclease H (RNH) domain, suggesting shuttle RNH between bacteria, Archaea.