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MBE Advance Access published online on May 14, 2009
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msp104
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Research Article

A single-copy IS5-like transposon in the genome of a bdelloid rotifer

Eugene A. Gladyshev1 and Irina R. Arkhipova2,*

1 Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
2 Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: iarkhipova{at}mbl.edu.

Dr. Irina R. Arkhipova, Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution, Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543, Tel. (508) 289-7120, Fax: (508) 457-4727

Received for publication January 7, 2009. Revision received March 29, 2009. Revision received May 4, 2009. Accepted for publication May 8, 2009.

In the course of sequencing telomeric chromosomal regions of the bdelloid rotifer Adineta vaga, we encountered an unusual DNA transposon. Unlike other bdelloid and, more generally, eukaryotic transposable elements (TEs), it exhibits similarity to prokaryotic insertion sequences (IS). Phylogenetic analysis indicates that this transposon, named IS5_Av, is related to the ISL2 group of the IS5 family of bacterial IS elements. Despite the apparent intactness of the single open reading frame coding for a DDE transposase and the perfect identity of its 213-bp terminal inverted repeats (TIRs), the element is present in only one copy per diploid genome. It does not exhibit any detectable levels of transcription, so that its transposase gene appears to be silent in the bdelloid host. While horizontal transfers of TEs between kingdoms are not known to happen in nature, it appears likely that IS5_Av underwent integration into the A. vaga genome relatively recently, but was not successful in adapting to the new host and failed to increase in copy number. Alternatively, it might be the only known member of a novel eukaryotic DNA TE superfamily which is so rare that its other members, if any, have not yet been identified in eukaryotic genomes sequenced to date.

Key Words: Lateral/horizontal gene transfer • DNA transposons • host factors • Adineta vaga


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