Element:Beetle1

Description

Beetle1 is a LTR retrotransposon characterized in Beta vulgaris (Weber and Schmidt 2003). Beetle1 belongs to the Chromoviridae branch, term suggested (Marín and Lloréns 2000) to describe the Ty3/Gypsy elements bearing chromodomain-integrases (Malik and Eickbush 1999). The chromovirus branch is probably the most ancient phylogenetic pattern of Ty3/Gypsy retroelements (Gorinsek, Gubensek and Kordis 2004; 2005; Kordis 2005).

Within chromoviruses, Beetle1 belongs to CRM clade, a centromere-associated sub-lineage characterized by encoding integrases, which are clearly divergent from that encoded by other lineages of chromoviruses (Gorinsek, Gubensek, and Kordis 2004). The genomic structure of of this element is 6.7 Kb in size, including LTRs of 546 nt. The internal region displays a Primer Binding Site (PBS), a single Open Reading Frame (ORF) coding for a gag-pol precursor, and a Polypurine Tract (PPT) adjacent to the 3´LTR (Weber and Schmidt 2003). The PBS of fungi and vertebrate chromoviruses, differs significantly from that used by plant chromoviruses. While plant chromoviruses use a methionine starting tRNA (iMet), fungi and vertebrate chromoviruses use their own self-priming mechanism to start the reverse transcription (Levin 1995 ; Butler et al. 2001).

Structure

Beetle1.png


Figure not to scale. If present, long terminal repeats (LTRs) have been highlighted in blue. Amino acid motifs noted with lines indicate the conserved residues in each protein domain, abbreviations below mean:

MA=matrix PR=protease DU or DUT=dUTPase TM=transmembrane TAV or IBMP=transactivator/viroplasmin or inclusion body matrix protein
CA=capsid RT=reverse transcriptase INT=Integrase CHR=chromodomain
NC=nucleocapsid RH=RNaseH SU=surface MOV=movement protein
PPT=polypurine tract PBS=primer binding site ATF=aphid transmission factor VAP=virion associated protein

Related literature

Genbank accession: AJ539424
Clade: CRM
Cluster or genus: Plants
Branch or class: Chromoviruses
Family: Ty3/Gypsy
System: LTR retroelements
Host:
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Beta vulgaris.gif
Beta vulgaris
Image, Carlos Llorens,
Copyright, GyDB, Biotech Vana
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Welcome to the Gypsy Database (GyDB) an open editable database about the evolutionary relationship of viruses, mobile genetic elements (MGEs) and the genomic repeats where we invite all authors to contribute with their knowledge to improve and expand the topics.
Cite this project:

Llorens, C., Futami, R., Covelli, L., Dominguez-Escriba, L., Viu, J.M., Tamarit, D., Aguilar-Rodriguez, J. Vicente-Ripolles, M., Fuster, G., Bernet, G.P., Maumus, F., Munoz-Pomer, A., Sempere, J.M., LaTorre, A., Moya, A. (2011) The Gypsy Database (GyDB) of Mobile Genetic Elements: Release 2.0 Nucleic Acids Research (NARESE) 39 (suppl 1): D70-D74 doi: 10.1093/nar/gkq1061

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