生物
检验
转座因子
蛋白质组
进化生物学
基因
遗传学
非编码DNA
计算生物学
基因组
作者
Valer Gotea,Wojciech Makałowski
标识
DOI:10.1016/j.tig.2006.03.006
摘要
Recent studies indicate that the initial classification of transposable elements (TEs) as 'useless', 'selfish' or 'junk' pieces of DNA is not an accurate one. TEs seem to have complex regulatory functions and contribute to the coding regions of many genes. Because this contribution had been documented only at transcript level, we searched for evidence that would also support the translation of TE cassettes. Our findings suggest that the proportion of proteins with TE-encoded fragments (approximately 0.1%), although probably underestimated, is much less than what the data at transcript level suggest (approximately 4%). In all cases, the TE cassettes are derived from old TEs, consistent with the idea that incorporation (exaptation) of TE fragments into functional proteins requires long evolutionary periods. We therefore argue that functional proteins are unlikely to contain TE cassettes derived from young TEs, the role of which is probably limited to regulatory functions.
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