The current source of human Alu retroposons is a conserved gene shared with Old World monkey
- California Institute of Technology, Corona del Mar (USA)
A significant fraction of human Alu repeated sequences are members of the precise, recently inserted class. A cloned member of this class has been used as a probe for interspecies hybridization and thermal stability determination. The probe was reassociated with human, mandrill, and spider monkey DNA under conditions such that only almost perfectly matching duplexes could form. Equally precise hybrids were formed with human and mandrill DNA (Old World monkey) but not with spider monkey DNA (New World). These measurements as well as reassociation kinetics show the presence in mandrill DNA of many precise class Alu sequences that are very similar or identical in quantity and sequence to those in human DNA. Human and mandrill are moderately distant species with a single-copy DNA divergence of about 6%. Nevertheless, their recently inserted Alu sequences arise by retroposition of transcripts of source genes with nearly identical sequences. Apparently a gene present in our common ancestor at the time of branching was inherited and highly conserved in sequence in both the lineage of Old World monkeys and the lineage of apes and man.
- OSTI ID:
- 5433565
- Journal Information:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America; (USA), Vol. 86:10; ISSN 0027-8424
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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