STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MODIFIE D BARE-RETROELEMENT OF HORDEUM-VULGARE L BARLEY GENOME

The primary structure of the 4.2-kb BamHI-fragment occurring abundantl y in the genome of barley Hordeum vulgare was determined. By means of computer analysis, considerable homology was found between this fragme nt and the copia-like BARE-1 retrotransposon studied earlier. A unique distinction of the BamHI fragment is its symmetrical structure caused by the presence of two mutually inverted parts, each of which is homo logous to a long region of BARE-1 including a 5'-LTR (long terminal re peat) and the adjacent leader sequence. No sequences homologous to the coding domains of BARE-1 were revealed in the fragment.]However, pote ntially functional signals were found: TATA boxes and primer-binding s ites (PBS) exhibiting statistically significant homology to the corres ponding regulatory signals of known retroelements. Thus, we have revea led and characterized a repeated element of the H. vulgare genome that is a markedly modified derivative of the BARE family of retrotranspos ons of this genome.