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Journal of Virology, March 2004, p. 2967-2978, Vol. 78, No. 6
0022-538X/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JVI.78.6.2967-2978.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Saci-1, -2, and -3 and Perere, Four Novel Retrotransposons with High Transcriptional Activities from the Human Parasite Schistosoma mansoni

Laboratorio de Bioinformatica,² Departamento de Bioquimica, Instituto de Quimica,¹ Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia,⁷ Departamento de Microbiologia, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade de São Paulo, 05508-900 São Paulo,⁹ Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto Adolfo Lutz, 01246-902 São Paulo,⁴ Laboratório de Parasitologia,⁵ Centro de Biotecnologia, Instituto Butantan, 05503-900 São Paulo,¹² Laboratory of Neurosciences (LIM27), Instituto de Psiquiatria, HCFM, Universidade de São Paulo, 05403-010 São Paulo,¹¹ Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, 14049-900 Ribeirão Preto,⁶ Instituto de Computacao, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 13084-971 Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil,¹⁰ Department of Pediatrics and Departments of Biochemistry, Orthopedics, Physiology and Biophysics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242,³ Department of Biology, University of York, York YO10 5YW, United Kingdom⁸

Received 25 September 2003/ Accepted 2 December 2003

Using the data set of 180,000 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) of the blood fluke Schistosoma mansoni generated recently by our group, we identified three novel long-terminal-repeat (LTR)- and one novel non-LTR-expressed retrotransposon, named Saci-1, -2, and -3 and Perere, respectively. Full-length sequences were reconstructed from ESTs and have deduced open reading frames (ORFs) with several uncorrupted features, characterizing them as possible active retrotransposons of different known transposon families. Alignment of reconstructed sequences to available preliminary genome sequence data confirmed the overall structure of the transposons. The frequency of sequenced transposon transcripts in cercariae was 14% of all transcripts from that stage, twofold higher than that in schistosomula and three- to fourfold higher than that in adults, eggs, miracidia, and germ balls. We show by Southern blot analysis, by EST annotation and tallying, and by counting transposon tags from a Social Analysis of Gene Expression library, that the four novel retrotransposons exhibit a 10- to 30-fold lower copy number in the genome and a 4- to 200-fold-higher transcriptional rate per copy than the four previously described S. mansoni retrotransposons. Such differences lead us to hypothesize that there are two different populations of retrotransposons in S. mansoni genome, occupying different niches in its ecology. Examples of retrotransposon fragment inserts were found into the 5' and 3' untranslated regions of four different S. mansoni target gene transcripts. The data presented here suggest a role for these elements in the dynamics of this complex human parasite genome.

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