NEW FAMILY OF LTR RETOTRANSPOSABLE ELEMENTS FROM FUNGI

*SUMMARY Motivation: The transposable elements most commonly isolated from fungi to date are retrotransposons. Fungal LTR retrotransposons showed the high variability and presence of great number of different groups and families. These elements resemble the vertebrate retroviruses in their genomic organization and replication cycle. Investigated fungi revealed considerable differences in the structure of retrotransposable elements population in genomes even for closely related species. The differences suggest that the factors shaping retrotransposon evolution have differed in the distant species. Use of data generated by different genome sequencing projects to identify LTR retrotransposons in distant fungal species can give insights into evolution of mobile elements and their hosts interactions. Results: We described two Ty3/gypsy LTR elements from Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus nidulans which formed a new common branch on the phylogenetic tree of LTR retrotransposons. They appear to form a new family of fungal elements. Further screening of 11 fungal genomes revealed presence of elements belonging to the same new family not only in ascomycetes but also in basidiomycetes. Altogether 6 additional elements have been found. Availability: http://genome.unipro.ru/.