SINE AND LINE SHARE COMMON 3'-SEQUENCE - A REVIEW

There are now five reported examples in which the 3' ends of tRNA-deri ved SINEs are derived from the 3' ends of LINEs. These examples includ e representative sequences from turtles, fish, mammals and plants (Ohs hima et al., 1996, Mel. Cell. Biol., 16, 3756-3764; Okada and Hamada, 1997, J. Mol. Evol. 44, Suppl 1:S52-S56). In this review, we discuss t he generality of this architecture of SINEs, adding new examples of pa irs of SINEs and LINEs, which include one complete and two probable ex amples from this laboratory and one complete example from the laborato ry of Arian Smit. This organization of SINEs and LINEs provides the ba sis for a simple general scheme by which SINEs might acquire retroposi tional activity. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.