Nature Communications (Mar 2016)

A Helitron transposon reconstructed from bats reveals a novel mechanism of genome shuffling in eukaryotes

  • Ivana Grabundzija,
  • Simon A. Messing,
  • Jainy Thomas,
  • Rachel L. Cosby,
  • Ilija Bilic,
  • Csaba Miskey,
  • Andreas Gogol-Döring,
  • Vladimir Kapitonov,
  • Tanja Diem,
  • Anna Dalda,
  • Jerzy Jurka,
  • Ellen J. Pritham,
  • Fred Dyda,
  • Zsuzsanna Izsvák,
  • Zoltán Ivics

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10716
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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Helitron elements are proposed rolling-circle transposons in eukaryotic genomes, but experimental evidence for their transposition has been lacking. Here, Grabundzija et al. reconstruct an active Helitron from bats which they name Helraiser, and characterize its mechanism of transposition in cell-free reactions and in human cell cultures in vitro.