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Nucleic Acids Research Advance Access originally published online on October 4, 2006
Nucleic Acids Research 2006 34(19):5498-5507; doi:10.1093/nar/gkl709
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Nucleic Acids Research, 2006, Vol. 34, No. 19 5498-5507
© 2006 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Molecular Biology

Identification of multiple transcription initiation, polyadenylation, and splice sites in the Drosophila melanogaster TART family of telomeric retrotransposons

Patrick H. Maxwell*, John M. Belote and Robert W. Levis

Department of Biology, Syracuse University 130 College Place, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +1 518 486 3821; Fax: +1 518 474 3181; Email: pmaxwell{at}wadsworth.org

Received January 27, 2006. Revised August 12, 2006. Accepted September 14, 2006.

The Drosophila non-long terminal repeat (non-LTR) retrotransposons TART and HeT-A specifically retrotranspose to chromosome ends to maintain Drosophila telomeric DNA. Relatively little is known, though, about the regulation of their expression and their retrotransposition to telomeres. We have used rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) to identify multiple transcription initiation and polyadenylation sites for sense and antisense transcripts of three subfamilies of TART elements in Drosophila melanogaster. These results are consistent with the production of an array of TART transcripts. In contrast to other Drosophila non-LTR elements, a major initiation site for sense transcripts was mapped near the 3' end of the TART 5'-untranslated region (5'-UTR), rather than at the start of the 5'-UTR. A sequence overlapping this sense start site contains a good match to an initiator consensus for the transcription start sites of Drosophila LTR retrotransposons. Interestingly, analysis of 5' RACE products for antisense transcripts and the GenBank EST database revealed that TART antisense transcripts contain multiple introns. Our results highlight differences between transcription of TART and of other Drosophila non-LTR elements and they provide a foundation for testing the relationship between exceptional aspects of TART transcription and TART's specialized role at telomeres.

Present addresses: Patrick H. Maxwell, Laboratory of Developmental Genetics, Wadsworth Center and Department of Biomedical Sciences, University at Albany School of Public Health, Albany, NY 12201-2002, USA

Robert W. Levis, Department of Embryology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 3520 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA

{dagger}AY561850, U14101 [GenBank] and AY600955 [GenBank]

GenBank accession nos{dagger}


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R. C. Frydrychova, H. Biessmann, A. Y. Konev, M. D. Golubovsky, J. Johnson, T. K. Archer, and J. M. Mason
Transcriptional Activity of the Telomeric Retrotransposon HeT-A in Drosophila melanogaster Is Stimulated as a Consequence of Subterminal Deficiencies at Homologous and Nonhomologous Telomeres
Mol. Cell. Biol., July 1, 2007; 27(13): 4991 - 5001.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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