First evidence of miniature transposable elements in sponges (Porifera)

Dirk Erpenbeck, Jürgen Schmitz*, Gennady Churakov, Dorothée Huchon, Gert Wörheide, Bernard M. Degnan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Transposable elements play a vital role in genome evolution and may have been important for the formation of the early metazoan genome, but only little is known about transposons at this interface between unicellular opisthokonts and Metazoa. Here, we describe the first miniature transposable elements (MITEs, Queen1 and Queen2) in sponges. Queen1 and Queen2 are probably derived from Tc1/mariner-like MITE families and are represented in more than 3,800 and 1,700 copies, respectively, in the Amphimedon queenslandica genome. Queen elements are located in intergenic regions as well as in introns, providing the potential to induce new splicing sites and termination signals in the genes. Further possible impacts of MITEs on the evolution of the metazoan genome are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)43-47
Number of pages5
JournalHydrobiologia
Volume687
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2012

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Science Foundation-0905606
National Evolutionary Synthesis Center
European Commission
Australian Research Council
Deutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftSPP1174, Wo896/6-2, SCHM1469/3-1
Israel Science Foundation600/06

    Keywords

    • Amphimedon queenslandica
    • Early diverging Metazoa
    • MITE
    • Porifera
    • Queen elements
    • Transposable element

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'First evidence of miniature transposable elements in sponges (Porifera)'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this