Element:Skippy

Description

Skippy is a LTR retrotransposon described in the genome of Fusarium oxyporum (Anaya and Roncero 1995). Skippy 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).

The genomic structure of Skippy is 8.4 Kb in size, including LTRs of 429 nt. The internal region displays a Primer Binding Site (PBS), two Open Reading Frames (ORFs) for gag, and pol genes, and a Polypurine Tract (PPT) adjacent to the 3´LTR (Anaya and Roncero 1995). This element presents a detectable chromodomain at the C-terminal end of the integrase domain. 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

Skippy.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: L34658
Clade: Pyret
Cluster or genus: Fungi and vertebrates
Branch or class: Chromoviruses
Family: Ty3/Gypsy
System: LTR retroelements
Host:
Explore the Tree Life Project
Fusarium sp.gif
Fusarium sp
Image, courtesy of Alfredo Martinez, Department of Plant Patology, University of Georgia
Browse all elements



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

Contact - Announcements - Acknowledgments - Terms of use and policy - Help - Donate
Donating legal disclaimer - Terms and conditions of the donation