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Repetitive elements called Alu elements constitute more than 10% of the human genome yet do not appear to code for proteins. In his Perspective, Makalowski discusses new work (Lev-Maor et al.) that sheds light on how Alu elements become inserted into the coding regions of genes resulting in the formation of new proteins and thus contributing to evolution.
The author is at the Institute of Molecular Evolutionary Genetics and Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, PA 16802, USA. E-mail: wojtek{at}psu.edu
Alu and LINE1 Distributions in the Human Chromosomes: Evidence of Global Genomic Organization Expressed in the Form of Power Laws.
D. Sellis, A. Provata, and Y. Almirantis (2007)
Mol. Biol. Evol.
24, 2385-2399
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
A Tandem Gene Duplication Followed by Recruitment of a Retrotransposon Created the Paralogous Bucentaur Gene (bcntp97) in the Ancestral Ruminant.
S. Iwashita, S. Ueno, K. Nakashima, S.-Y. Song, K. Ohshima, K. Tanaka, H. Endo, J. Kimura, M. Kurohmaru, K. Fukuta, et al. (2006)
Mol. Biol. Evol.
23, 798-806
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
Identification of Splicing Silencers and Enhancers in Sense Alus: a Role for Pseudoacceptors in Splice Site Repression.
Many P-Element Insertions Affect Wing Shape in Drosophila melanogaster.
K. Weber, N. Johnson, D. Champlin, and A. Patty (2005)
Genetics
169, 1461-1475
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
Widespread RNA Editing of Embedded Alu Elements in the Human Transcriptome.
D. D.Y. Kim, T. T.Y. Kim, T. Walsh, Y. Kobayashi, T. C. Matise, S. Buyske, and A. Gabriel (2004)
Genome Res.
14, 1719-1725
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
Saci-1, -2, and -3 and Perere, Four Novel Retrotransposons with High Transcriptional Activities from the Human Parasite Schistosoma mansoni.
R. DeMarco, A. T. Kowaltowski, A. A. Machado, M. B. Soares, C. Gargioni, T. Kawano, V. Rodrigues, A. M. B. N. Madeira, R. A. Wilson, C. F. M. Menck, et al. (2004)
J. Virol.
78, 2967-2978
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
AluGene: a database of Alu elements incorporated within protein-coding genes.
T. Dagan, R. Sorek, E. Sharon, G. Ast, and D. Graur (2004)
Nucleic Acids Res.
32, D489-492
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
