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Members of a large retroposon family are determinants of post-transcriptional gene expression in Leishmania

Bringaud, F and Müller, M and Cerqueira, GC and Smith, M and Rochette, A and El-Sayed, NMA and Papadopoulou, B and Ghedin, E (2007) Members of a large retroposon family are determinants of post-transcriptional gene expression in Leishmania. PLoS Pathogens, 3 (9). 1291 - 1307. ISSN 1553-7366

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Abstract

Trypanosomatids are unicellular protists that include the human pathogens Leishmania spp. (leishmaniasis), Trypanosoma brucei (sleeping sickness), and Trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas disease). Analysis of their recently completed genomes confirmed the presence of non-long-terminal repeat retrotransposons, also called retroposons. Using the 79-bp signature sequence common to all trypanosomatid retroposons as bait, we identified in the Leishmania major genome two new large families of small elements - LmSIDER1 (785 copies) and LmSIDER2 (1,073 copies) - that fulfill all the characteristics of extinct trypanosomatid retroposons. LmSIDERs are ∼70 times more abundant in L. major compared to T. brucei and are found almost exclusively within the 3′-untranslated regions (3′UTRs) of L. major mRNAs. We provide experimental evidence that LmSIDER2 act as mRNA instability elements and that LmSIDER2-containing mRNAs are generally expressed at lower levels compared to the non-LmSIDER2 mRNAs. The considerable expansion of LmSIDERs within 3′UTRs in an organism lacking transcriptional control and their role in regulating mRNA stability indicate that Leishmania have probably recycled these short retroposons to globally modulate the expression of a number of genes. To our knowledge, this is the first example in eukaryotes of the domestication and expansion of a family of mobile elements that have evolved to fulfill a critical cellular function. © 2007 Bringaud et al.


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Details

Item Type: Article
Status: Published
Creators/Authors:
CreatorsEmailPitt UsernameORCID
Bringaud, F
Müller, M
Cerqueira, GC
Smith, M
Rochette, A
El-Sayed, NMA
Papadopoulou, B
Ghedin, Eelg21@pitt.eduELG21
Contributors:
ContributionContributors NameEmailPitt UsernameORCID
EditorMyler, PeterUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Date: 1 January 2007
Date Type: Publication
Journal or Publication Title: PLoS Pathogens
Volume: 3
Number: 9
Page Range: 1291 - 1307
DOI or Unique Handle: 10.1371/journal.ppat.0030136
Schools and Programs: School of Medicine > Infectious Diseases and Microbiology
Refereed: Yes
ISSN: 1553-7366
PubMed ID: 17907803
Date Deposited: 18 Jul 2012 21:07
Last Modified: 29 Jan 2019 15:56
URI: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/12918

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