Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A genetic element, such as a retrotransposon, that can be incorporated into a DNA sequence after reverse transcription of an RNA molecule.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun genetics A
retrotransposon
Etymologies
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Examples
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Five retroelement families, L1 and L2 (long interspersed nuclear element, LINE), Alu and MIR (short interspersed nuclear element, SINE), and LTR (long terminal repeat), comprise almost half of the human genome.
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The short arm of chromosome 5 deviates from the rest of the genome by exhibiting a trend towards genome expansion through increased retroelement numbers and disruption of gene order more typical of the larger genomes of closely related grasses.
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This may be due to retroelement activity that increases syntenic disruptions, as proposed for chromosome 5S later
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(LTR) - LTR recombination, demonstrating that retroelement expansion is countered by removal through recombination.
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Thirteen retroelement sets were younger than 20,000 years, showing a recent activation compared to rice
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Brachypodium contains many active retroelement families, but recombination between these keeps genome expansion in check.
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In contrast, the Micropia retroelement may have been introduced into the Zaprionus subgenus and the melanogaster subgroup from an unknown donor more recently (~3 MYA).
BioMed Central - Latest articles Nathalia Setta 2009
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The Gypsy retroelement of the melanogaster subgroup probably invaded the Zaprionus genomes about 11 MYA.
BioMed Central - Latest articles Nathalia Setta 2009
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The sequences of each retroelement were closely related to those of the melanogaster species subgroup, and the most parsimonious hypothesis would be that 15 horizontal transfer events shaped their evolution.
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Patterson said that the results from this study help to clarify many existing theories on retroelement evolution.
Darwiniana 2008
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