The distribution and conservation of retrotransposable elements in cattle

Hasan Khatib and Eui-Soo Kim

volume 3 | issue 2

March/April 2008
Pages: 81 - 88

Purchase article for $19

Subscribe to this journal for $79/year

» Log in

The objectives of this study were to investigate the distribution of retrotransposable elements in monoallelically-expressed genes including imprinted, X-linked and olfactory genes vs. biallelically-expressed genes and to analyze the conservation of these elements in imprinted and homeobox genes in human, mouse and cattle. The frequency of short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs) was found to be significantly lower in imprinted genes compared to 2,748 nonimprinted genes from bovine chromosomes 4, 15, 29 and X. Consistent with human and mouse studies, long interspersed nuclear elements (LINEs) were enriched on bovine chromosome X compared with autosomal chromosomes. High densities of LINE-1s were found in 223 bovine and 402 mouse olfactory genes compared to imprinted genes. The low density of SINEs and LINEs found in imprinted genes compared to chromosome X implies that different mechanisms are involved in controlling genomic imprinting and X inactivation.

Authors

Hasan Khatib

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Eui-Soo Kim