Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Nucleic Acids Research logoLink to Nucleic Acids Research
. 1996 Apr 15;24(8):1428–1434. doi: 10.1093/nar/24.8.1428

Afut1, a retrotransposon-like element from Aspergillus fumigatus.

C Neuveglise 1, J Sarfati 1, J P Latge 1, S Paris 1
PMCID: PMC145799  PMID: 8628674

Abstract

A repeated DNA sequence used for epidemiological studies of the human opportunistic pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus has been characterized. It is a retroelement of 6914 bp in length, bounded by long terminal repeats of 282 bp, with sequence and features characteristic of retroviruses and retrotransposons. A 5 bp duplication site was found at its borders. This element, designated Afut1, encodes amino acid sequences homologous to the reverse transcriptase, RNase H and endonuclease encoded by the pol genes of retroelements. Comparison of the peptidic sequences with other putative polypeptides of fungal LTR retrotransposons showed that Afut1 is a member of the gypsy group. This is the first report of a transposable element in A.fumigatus. Afut1 is a defective element: the putative coding domains contain multiple stop codons due exclusively to transitions from C:G to T:A.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (157.7 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Anderson J., Srikantha T., Morrow B., Miyasaki S. H., White T. C., Agabian N., Schmid J., Soll D. R. Characterization and partial nucleotide sequence of the DNA fingerprinting probe Ca3 of Candida albicans. J Clin Microbiol. 1993 Jun;31(6):1472–1480. doi: 10.1128/jcm.31.6.1472-1480.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Britten R. J., McCormack T. J., Mears T. L., Davidson E. H. Gypsy/Ty3-class retrotransposons integrated in the DNA of herring, tunicate, and echinoderms. J Mol Evol. 1995 Jan;40(1):13–24. doi: 10.1007/BF00166592. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cambareri E. B., Jensen B. C., Schabtach E., Selker E. U. Repeat-induced G-C to A-T mutations in Neurospora. Science. 1989 Jun 30;244(4912):1571–1575. doi: 10.1126/science.2544994. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Cameron J. R., Loh E. Y., Davis R. W. Evidence for transposition of dispersed repetitive DNA families in yeast. Cell. 1979 Apr;16(4):739–751. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(79)90090-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Chen J. Y., Fonzi W. A. A temperature-regulated, retrotransposon-like element from Candida albicans. J Bacteriol. 1992 Sep;174(17):5624–5632. doi: 10.1128/jb.174.17.5624-5632.1992. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Cullen D., Wilson L. J., Grey G. L., Henner D. J., Turner G., Ballance D. J. Sequence and centromere proximal location of a transformation enhancing fragment ans1 from Aspergillus nidulans. Nucleic Acids Res. 1987 Nov 25;15(22):9163–9175. doi: 10.1093/nar/15.22.9163. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Devereux J., Haeberli P., Smithies O. A comprehensive set of sequence analysis programs for the VAX. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Jan 11;12(1 Pt 1):387–395. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.1part1.387. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Diolez A., Marches F., Fortini D., Brygoo Y. Boty, a long-terminal-repeat retroelement in the phytopathogenic fungus Botrytis cinerea. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1995 Jan;61(1):103–108. doi: 10.1128/aem.61.1.103-108.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Dobinson K. F., Harris R. E., Hamer J. E. Grasshopper, a long terminal repeat (LTR) retroelement in the phytopathogenic fungus Magnaporthe grisea. Mol Plant Microbe Interact. 1993 Jan-Feb;6(1):114–126. doi: 10.1094/mpmi-6-114. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Downs K. M., Brennan G., Liebman S. W. Deletions extending from a single Ty1 element in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mol Cell Biol. 1985 Dec;5(12):3451–3457. doi: 10.1128/mcb.5.12.3451. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Girardin H., Latgé J. P., Srikantha T., Morrow B., Soll D. R. Development of DNA probes for fingerprinting Aspergillus fumigatus. J Clin Microbiol. 1993 Jun;31(6):1547–1554. doi: 10.1128/jcm.31.6.1547-1554.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Girardin H., Monod M., Latgé J. P. Molecular characterization of the food-borne fungus Neosartorya fischeri (Malloch and Cain). Appl Environ Microbiol. 1995 Apr;61(4):1378–1383. doi: 10.1128/aem.61.4.1378-1383.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Girardin H., Sarfati J., Kobayashi H., Bouchara J. P., Latgé J. P. Use of DNA moderately repetitive sequence to type Aspergillus fumigatus isolates from aspergilloma patients. J Infect Dis. 1994 Mar;169(3):683–685. doi: 10.1093/infdis/169.3.683. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Girardin H., Sarfati J., Traoré F., Dupouy Camet J., Derouin F., Latgé J. P. Molecular epidemiology of nosocomial invasive aspergillosis. J Clin Microbiol. 1994 Mar;32(3):684–690. doi: 10.1128/jcm.32.3.684-690.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Goodwin S. B., Drenth A., Fry W. E. Cloning and genetic analyses of two highly polymorphic, moderately repetitive nuclear DNAs from Phytophthora infestans. Curr Genet. 1992 Aug;22(2):107–115. doi: 10.1007/BF00351469. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Grandbastien M. A. Retroelements in higher plants. Trends Genet. 1992 Mar;8(3):103–108. doi: 10.1016/0168-9525(92)90198-d. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Hansen L. J., Chalker D. L., Sandmeyer S. B. Ty3, a yeast retrotransposon associated with tRNA genes, has homology to animal retroviruses. Mol Cell Biol. 1988 Dec;8(12):5245–5256. doi: 10.1128/mcb.8.12.5245. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Johnson M. S., McClure M. A., Feng D. F., Gray J., Doolittle R. F. Computer analysis of retroviral pol genes: assignment of enzymatic functions to specific sequences and homologies with nonviral enzymes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Oct;83(20):7648–7652. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.20.7648. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Julien J., Poirier-Hamon S., Brygoo Y. Foret1, a reverse transcriptase-like sequence in the filamentous fungus Fusarium oxysporum. Nucleic Acids Res. 1992 Aug 11;20(15):3933–3937. doi: 10.1093/nar/20.15.3933. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Kricker M. C., Drake J. W., Radman M. Duplication-targeted DNA methylation and mutagenesis in the evolution of eukaryotic chromosomes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1992 Feb 1;89(3):1075–1079. doi: 10.1073/pnas.89.3.1075. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Lasker B. A., Page L. S., Lott T. J., Kobayashi G. S. Isolation, characterization, and sequencing of Candida albicans repetitive element 2. Gene. 1992 Jul 1;116(1):51–57. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(92)90628-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Lasker B. A., Page L. S., Lott T. J., Kobayashi G. S., Medoff G. Characterization of CARE-1: Candida albicans repetitive element-1. Gene. 1991 Jun 15;102(1):45–50. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(91)90536-k. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. McHale M. T., Roberts I. N., Noble S. M., Beaumont C., Whitehead M. P., Seth D., Oliver R. P. CfT-I: an LTR-retrotransposon in Cladosporium fulvum, a fungal pathogen of tomato. Mol Gen Genet. 1992 Jun;233(3):337–347. doi: 10.1007/BF00265429. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Roeder G. S., Fink G. R. DNA rearrangements associated with a transposable element in yeast. Cell. 1980 Aug;21(1):239–249. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(80)90131-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Sadhu C., McEachern M. J., Rustchenko-Bulgac E. P., Schmid J., Soll D. R., Hicks J. B. Telomeric and dispersed repeat sequences in Candida yeasts and their use in strain identification. J Bacteriol. 1991 Jan;173(2):842–850. doi: 10.1128/jb.173.2.842-850.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Schechtman M. G. Characterization of telomere DNA from Neurospora crassa. Gene. 1990 Apr 16;88(2):159–165. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(90)90027-o. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Schechtman M. G. Isolation of telomere DNA from Neurospora crassa. Mol Cell Biol. 1987 Sep;7(9):3168–3177. doi: 10.1128/mcb.7.9.3168. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Scherer S., Stevens D. A. A Candida albicans dispersed, repeated gene family and its epidemiologic applications. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Mar;85(5):1452–1456. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.5.1452. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Schmid-Berger N., Schmid B., Barth G. Ylt1, a highly repetitive retrotransposon in the genome of the dimorphic fungus Yarrowia lipolytica. J Bacteriol. 1994 May;176(9):2477–2482. doi: 10.1128/jb.176.9.2477-2482.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Schmid J., Tay Y. P., Wan L., Carr M., Parr D., McKinney W. Evidence for nosocomial transmission of Candida albicans obtained by Ca3 fingerprinting. J Clin Microbiol. 1995 May;33(5):1223–1230. doi: 10.1128/jcm.33.5.1223-1230.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Selker E. U., Stevens J. N. DNA methylation at asymmetric sites is associated with numerous transition mutations. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Dec;82(23):8114–8118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.23.8114. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Singer M. J., Marcotte B. A., Selker E. U. DNA methylation associated with repeat-induced point mutation in Neurospora crassa. Mol Cell Biol. 1995 Oct;15(10):5586–5597. doi: 10.1128/mcb.15.10.5586. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Smyth D. R., Kalitsis P., Joseph J. L., Sentry J. W. Plant retrotransposon from Lilium henryi is related to Ty3 of yeast and the gypsy group of Drosophila. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 Jul;86(13):5015–5019. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.13.5015. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  34. Springer M. S., Britten R. J. Phylogenetic relationships of reverse transcriptase and RNase H sequences and aspects of genome structure in the gypsy group of retrotransposons. Mol Biol Evol. 1993 Nov;10(6):1370–1379. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a040065. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  35. Voytas D. F., Boeke J. D. Yeast retrotransposon revealed. Nature. 1992 Aug 27;358(6389):717–717. doi: 10.1038/358717a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  36. Xiong Y., Eickbush T. H. Origin and evolution of retroelements based upon their reverse transcriptase sequences. EMBO J. 1990 Oct;9(10):3353–3362. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1990.tb07536.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Nucleic Acids Research are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES