GINGER2

Gypsy-Integrase-Related Type 2 (GINGER2) is a recently described pool of intron-exon structured cut and paste DNA transposons described in eukaryotes (Bao et al. 2010). Full-length GINGER2 elements vary from approximately 2.6-6.0 kb and can be flanked by terminal inverted repeats (TIRs) of approximately 40-180 nucleotides long. Despite of this not all GINGER2 elements are carriers of TIRs. For simplicity´s sake the figure below (Figure not to scale) shows the genomic structure without introns.

There are two complementary classifications for the GINGER2 transposons. Based on sequence these elements can be classified as DDE TRs and integrases (INTs). Within this scenario, phylogenetic and comparative analyses reveal that GINGER2 transposons are the original source from which the SCAN/KRAB Cellular-INTs have evolved evolve (Llorens et al. 2012). The phylogenetic inference is also consistent with the idea of direct relationship among the GINGER transposons and the Tdd-like elements (Bao et al. 2010) and FOB1 genes (Gao & Voytas 2005). Based on INT-like structural potential similarities, the INT coded by GINGER2 transposons are members of the Retroviral Integrase Superfamily (Nowotny 2009) of nucleic acid-processing enzymes involved in: a) selfish evolution; b) replication and repair of DNA; c) recombination and gene fusion; d) RNA-mediated gene silencing; and e) oncogenesis.