Affiliation:
1. School of Biology and Pharmacy, Institute of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, University of Jena, Semmelweisstrasse 10, 07743 Jena, Germany
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Retrotransposable elements are molecular parasites that have invaded the genomes of virtually all organisms. Although retrotransposons encode essential proteins to mediate their amplification, they also require assistance by host cell-encoded machineries that perform functions such as DNA transcription and repair. The retrotransposon TRE5-A of the social amoeba
Dictyostelium discoideum
generates a notable amount of both sense and antisense RNAs, which are generated from element-internal promoters, located in the A module and the C module, respectively. We observed that TRE5-A retrotransposons depend on the C-module-binding factor (CbfA) to maintain high steady-state levels of TRE5-A transcripts and that CbfA supports the retrotransposition activity of TRE5-A elements. The carboxy-terminal domain of CbfA was found to be required and sufficient to mediate the accumulation of TRE5-A transcripts, but it did not support productive retrotransposition of TRE5-A. This result suggests different roles for CbfA protein domains in the regulation of TRE5-A retrotransposition frequency in
D. discoideum
cells. Although CbfA binds to the C module
in vitro
, the factor regulates neither C-module nor A-module promoter activity
in vivo
. We speculate that CbfA supports the amplification of TRE5-A retrotransposons by suppressing the expression of an as yet unidentified component of the cellular posttranscriptional gene silencing machinery.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Molecular Biology,General Medicine,Microbiology
Cited by
4 articles.
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