Cited by 1,374Chromosomal and Genetic VariationsEvolution and Genetic DynamicsGenomics and Phylogenetic Studies

Origin and evolution of retroelements based upon their reverse transcriptase sequences

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Xiong, Y., Eickbush, T. H.·1990·The EMBO Journal

Abstract

To study the evolutionary relationship of reverse transcriptase (RT) containing genetic elements, a phylogenetic tree of 82 retroelements from animals, plants, protozoans and bacteria was constructed. The tree was based on seven amino acid domains totalling 178 residues identified in all RTs. We have also identified these seven domains in the RNA-directed RNA polymerases from various plus-strand RNA viruses. The sequence similarity of these RNA polymerases to RT suggests that these two enzymes evolved from a common ancestor, and thus RNA polymerase can be used as an outgroup to root the RT tree. A comparison of the genetic organization of the various RT containing elements and their position on the tree allows several inferences concerning the origin and evolution of these elements. The most probable ancestor of current retroelements was a retrotransposable element with both gag-like and pol-like genes. On one major branch of the tree, organelle and bacterial sequences (e.g. group II introns and bacterial msDNA) appear to have captured the RT sequences from retrotransposons which lack long terminal repeats (LTRs). On the other major branch, acquisition of LTRs gave rise to two distinct groups of LTR retrotransposons and three groups of viruses: retroviruses, hepadnaviruses and caulimoviruses.

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Crossref · 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1990.tb07536.x

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Authors
Xiong, Y., & Eickbush, T. H.
Affiliations
University of Rochester (US)
Venue
The EMBO Journal
Published
1990-10-01
Volume
9
Issue
10
Pages
3353-3362
ISSN
  • 0261-4189 (ISSN-L)
  • 1460-2075
OpenAlex
W1554644662
Cited by
1,374
References
77
Citations by year
2026: 16 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 29 · 2015: 34 · 2014: 32 · 2013: 44 · 2012: 29
FWCI
87.47
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • The EMBO Journal (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Chromosomal and Genetic Variations
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
Keywords
retroelements, reverse transcriptase, retrotransposons, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, positive-strand RNA viruses, LTR retrotransposons, retroviral evolution, hepadnaviruses, group II introns, organelle DNA, common ancestor, horizontal gene transfer
MeSH terms
Amino Acid Sequence, Animals, DNA Transposable Elements, Biological Evolution, Humans, Introns, Molecular Sequence Data, Phylogeny, RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase, DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases, Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid

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