Nucleic Acids Research, 2001, Vol. 29, No. 20 4106-4113
© 2001 Oxford University Press
Pyret, a Ty3/Gypsy retrotransposon in Magnaporthe grisea contains an extra domain between the nucleocapsid and protease domains
Laboratory of Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe 657-8501, Japan and 1Laboratory of Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Saga University, 1 Honjo-cho, Saga 840-8502, Japan
A novel Ty3/Gypsy retrotransposon, named Pyret, was identified in the plant pathogenic fungus Magnaporthe grisea (anamorph Pyricularia oryzae). Pyret-related elements were distributed in a wide range of Pyricularia isolates from various gramineous plants. The Pyret element is 7250 bp in length with a 475 bp LTR and one conceptual ORF. The ORF contains seven nonsense mutations in the reading frame, indicating that the Pyret clone is lightly degenerate. Comparative domain analysis among retroelements revealed that Pyret exhibits an extra domain (WCCH domain) beyond the basic components of LTR retrotransposons. The WCCH domain consists of 
300 amino acids and is located downstream of the nucleocapsid domain. The WCCH domain is so named because it contains two repeats of a characteristic amino acid sequence, W-X2-C-X4-C-X2-H-X3-K. A WCCH motif-like sequence is found in the precoat protein of some geminiviruses, viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and also in an Arabidopsis protein of unknown function. Interestingly, detailed sequence analysis of the gag protein revealed that Pyret, as well as some other chromodomain-containing LTR retrotransposons, displays significant sequence homology with members of the gammaretroviruses (MLV-related retroviruses) in the capsid and nucleocapsid domains. This suggests that chromodomain-containing LTR retrotransposons and gammaretroviruses may share a common ancestor with the gag protein.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +81 78 803 5867; Fax: +81 78 803 5867; Email: hnakaya{at}kobe-u.ac.jp
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  C. Rehmeyer, W. Li, M. Kusaba, Y.-S. Kim, D. Brown, C. Staben, R. Dean, and M. Farman Organization of chromosome ends in the rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae Nucleic Acids Res., October 18, 2006; 34(17): 4685 - 4701. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. Perez-Alegre, A. Dubus, and E. Fernandez REM1, a New Type of Long Terminal Repeat Retrotransposon in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Mol. Cell. Biol., December 1, 2005; 25(23): 10628 - 10638. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|