TY - JOUR
T1 - The limited distribution of Helitrons to vesper bats supports horizontal transfer
AU - Thomas, Jainy
AU - Sorourian, Mehran
AU - Ray, David
AU - Baker, Robert J.
AU - Pritham, Ellen J.
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to acknowledge the Ambrose Monell Cryo Collection (AMCC) at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, and the Museum of Texas Tech University, Texas for their support in our research by providing us the bat DNA/tissue samples. We also would like to acknowledge all those individuals who collected bats and prepared them as voucher specimens deposited in museums. Thanks to Faisal Ali Bin Anwarali Khan for permitting us to examine specimens from Malaysia. We would like to thank Paul Chippindale, Walter Schargel, John Malone and Esther Betran for providing the non-bat DNA samples used in this study. We would like to thank Cedric Feschotte for stimulating discussions. We also would like to thank Claudia Marquez and Megha Bajaj for their critical review of this manuscript. This work was supported by startup funds from UTA to EJP.
PY - 2011/3/15
Y1 - 2011/3/15
N2 - Transposable elements (TEs) have the unique ability to move and replicate within the genome and therefore engender dramatic changes to genome architecture. Among different types of TEs, rolling-circle transposons (Helitrons) are well known for their ability to capture and amplify host gene fragments. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that Helitrons constitute ~. 3% of the Myotis lucifugus, (little brown bat) genome, while no Helitrons were found in any of the other 44+ sequenced mammalian genomes. Recently horizontal transfer has been implicated for some of the M. lucifugus Helitrons, in part explaining this disparate distribution among mammals. The purpose of this work is to determine both the distribution of Helitrons among bats and to estimate the number of independent invasions. We employed a combination of in silico, PCR and hybridization based techniques to identify Helitrons from diverse bat species belonging to ten different families. This work reveals that Helitrons invaded the vesper bat lineage, at least once. Indeed, Helitrons were not identified in the sister taxa 'Miniopterus', which suggests that the amplification of Helibat occurred (30-36. mya) only in the vesper bat lineage. The estimated age of amplification of the Helibats and the rapid radiation of vesper bats are roughly coincidental and suggest that the invasion and amplification of these elements might have influenced their evolutionary trajectory potentially contributing to phenotypic and genotypic diversity.
AB - Transposable elements (TEs) have the unique ability to move and replicate within the genome and therefore engender dramatic changes to genome architecture. Among different types of TEs, rolling-circle transposons (Helitrons) are well known for their ability to capture and amplify host gene fragments. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that Helitrons constitute ~. 3% of the Myotis lucifugus, (little brown bat) genome, while no Helitrons were found in any of the other 44+ sequenced mammalian genomes. Recently horizontal transfer has been implicated for some of the M. lucifugus Helitrons, in part explaining this disparate distribution among mammals. The purpose of this work is to determine both the distribution of Helitrons among bats and to estimate the number of independent invasions. We employed a combination of in silico, PCR and hybridization based techniques to identify Helitrons from diverse bat species belonging to ten different families. This work reveals that Helitrons invaded the vesper bat lineage, at least once. Indeed, Helitrons were not identified in the sister taxa 'Miniopterus', which suggests that the amplification of Helibat occurred (30-36. mya) only in the vesper bat lineage. The estimated age of amplification of the Helibats and the rapid radiation of vesper bats are roughly coincidental and suggest that the invasion and amplification of these elements might have influenced their evolutionary trajectory potentially contributing to phenotypic and genotypic diversity.
KW - Genome diversification
KW - Helitron
KW - Horizontal transfer
KW - Transposable element
KW - Vesper bats
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79952006291&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.gene.2010.12.007
DO - 10.1016/j.gene.2010.12.007
M3 - Article
C2 - 21193022
AN - SCOPUS:79952006291
SN - 0378-1119
VL - 474
SP - 52
EP - 58
JO - Gene
JF - Gene
IS - 1-2
ER -