LTR retrotransposon
class I transposable element
LTR retrotransposons are class I transposable elements (TEs) characterized by the presence of long terminal repeats (LTRs) directly flanking an internal coding region. As retrotransposons, they mobilize through reverse transcription of their mRNA and integration of the newly created cDNA into another genomic location. Their mechanism of retrotransposition is shared with retroviruses, with the difference that the rate of horizontal transfer in LTR-retrotransposons is much lower than the vertical transfer by passing active TE insertions to the progeny. LTR retrotransposons that form virus-like particles are classified under Ortervirales.
Their size ranges from a few hundred base pairs to 30 kb, the largest species reported to date are members of the Burro retrotransposon family in Schmidtea mediterranea.
In plant genomes, LTR retrotransposons are the major repetitive sequence class constituting more than 75% of the maize genome. LTR retrotransposons make up about 8% of the human genome and approximately 10% of the mouse genome.
Structure and propagation
LTR retrotransposons have direct long terminal repeats that range from ~100 bp to over 5 kb in size. LTR retrotransposons are further sub-classified into the Ty1-copia-like (Pseudoviridae), Ty3-like (Metaviridae, formally referred to as Gypsy-like, a name that is being considered for retirement), and BEL-Pao-like (Belpaoviridae) groups based on both their degree of sequence similarity and the order of encoded gene products. Ty1-copia and Ty3-Metaviridae groups of retrotransposons are commonly found in high copy number (up to a few million copies per haploid nucleus) in animals, fungi, protista, and plants genomes.
“LTR retrotransposon” enters the record as class I transposable element. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what retrotransposon, class and transposable can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “LTR retrotransposon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.