RTE-1, A RETROTRANSPOSON-LIKE ELEMENT IN CAENORHABDITIS-ELEGANS

We have characterized a retrotransposon-like element (Rte-1) in C. ele gans, It was identified while we were sequencing the pim related kinas e-1 (prk-1) gene, The element is 3,298 bp long and flanked by a 200 bp direct repeat, 95 bp of the direct repeat are present in the coding r egion of prk-1. Rte-l contains an open reading frame, in the opposite orientation of prk-1, potentially encoding 625 amino acids, with simil arity to reverse transcriptases, The element is most similar to member s of the non-LTR group of retrotransposable elements. There is weak ho mology of the predicted amino acid sequence of Rte-l to several revers e transcriptase-like genes identified by the C. elegans genome sequenc ing consortium, suggesting that there may be a large family of these e lements, Southern blots indicate that there are approximately 10-15 ad ditional Rte-l elements in the C. elegans Bristol N2 genome and a simi lar number is found in the genomes of two other geographically distinc t strains, The insertion pattern of Rte-l is polymorphic between these strains.