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 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 Mobile DNA II. (Craig et al. 2002)

Genbank accession: AJ539424 Clade: CRM Cluster or genus: Plants Branch or class: Chromoviruses Family: Ty3/Gypsy System: LTR retroelements Host: Explore the Tree Life Project Beta vulgaris Image, Carlos Llorens, Copyright, GyDB, Biotech Vana Browse all elements