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- Title
Alu: a parasite's parasite?
- Authors
Schmid, Carl W.
- Abstract
A long-sought experimental system to learn how Alu repeats amplified to a high copy number in human DNA is represented in the article. The technical problem of detecting the retrotransposition-amplification and genomic dispersion of sequences through an RNA intermediate-of Pol III-directed transcripts has been solved. There are over one million Alu family members, which share a 282-nucleotide consensus sequence, account for 10% of human DNA alone and are ubiquitously dispersed throughout the genome but highly overrepresented in gene rich regions of human DNA. Only a few members of the LINE1 family of highly repetitive retrotransposable sequences are capable of autonomous amplification. Pol III transcripts generally do not encode proteins, and circumstantial evidence has long suggested that the retrotransposition of Alu elements, and analogous sequences in other eukaryotes, requires trans-acting factors, which are provided by companion LINE elements.
- Subjects
GENE amplification; DNA; GENOMES; GENETIC transcription
- Publication
Nature Genetics, 2003, Vol 35, Issue 1, p15
- ISSN
1061-4036
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/ng0903-15