Plant & Animal Genomes XIII Conference

January 15-19, 2005
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Essam A. Zaki

  Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology Research Institute (GEBRI), Mubarak City for Research, Alexandria, Egypt

Retrotransposons are ubiquitous and abundant in plants and retroviruses are known in animals. Retrotransposons and retroviruses share similar intracellular life cycles and major encoded proteins. Retrotransposons, however, lack the envelope (env) critical for infectivity. The aim of the current study is to investigate the molecular evolution of env-containing retrotransposons in an allopolyploid and diploid species of cotton (Gossypium L). This allows env-containing retrotransposons evolution to be studied in two levels: first, in the diploids, subsequent to their divergence from a common ancestor, and second, in the polyploid, after retrotransposons have been reunited in a common genome. The detection of env-containing retrotransposons in cotton suggests that enveloped retroviruses are not limited to animals. In addition, their ubiquitous nature and the potential for horizontal transfer implicate these endogenous retroviruses as important vehicles for plant genome evolution.