Éléments mobiles SINE en phylogénie

SINE (short interspersed repetitive elements) are retroposons derived from tRNA or 7SL RNA. These repetitive sequences represent a large part of the eukaryotic genome. Their copy number can reach more than 104 per genome. However, no evident function is recognized to these elements. Recently, these «selfish DNAs» appear as a powerful tool in molecular systematic. SINE retroposons have the ability to duplicate and to be reincorporated many times into the genome. Their insertions have two major characteristics: first, a SINE has a negligible probability to be inserted twice at a specific genomic location, second, the chance that a deletion at one insertion site matches exactly the boundaries of the SINE is also insignificant. For these reasons, the analysis of SINE insertions is a source of phylogenetic information, free of convergence and reversal. SINEs thus appear as «perfect» phylogenetic characters and the study of their insertion site has recently led to unexpected phylogenetic results. The advantages and limits of this new phylogenetic method are presented here.