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Thehermit transposable element of the Australian sheep blowfly,Lucilia cuprina, belongs to thehAT family of transposable elements

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Abstract

We report the cloning ofhermit, a member of thehAT family of transposable elements from the genome of the Australian sheep blowfly,Lucilia cuprina. Hermit is 2716 bp long and is 49% homologous to the autonomoushobo element,HFL1, at the nucleic acid level.Hermit has 15 bp terminal inverted repeats that share 10 bp with the terminal inverted repeats ofHFL1. Conceptual translation reveals a 583 residue open reading frame (ORF) that is 64% similar and 42% identical to theHFL1 ORF. However, the sequence of thehermit element contains two frameshifts within the putative ORF, indication thathermit is an inactive element. Analysis ofL. cuprina strains from within and outside Australia suggested thathermit is present as a single copy in all the genomes analysed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Entomology, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, GPO Box 1700, 2601, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Craig J. Coates & Peter W. Atkinson

  2. Division of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Australian National University, GPO Box 4, 0200, Acton, ACT, Australia

    Craig J. Coates, Karyn N. Johnson, Harvey D. Perkins & Antony J. Howells

  3. Center for Agricultural Biotechnology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, 20742, College Park, MD, USA

    David A. O'Brochta

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  1. Craig J. Coates
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  2. Karyn N. Johnson
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  3. Harvey D. Perkins
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  4. Antony J. Howells
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  5. David A. O'Brochta
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  6. Peter W. Atkinson
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Coates, C.J., Johnson, K.N., Perkins, H.D. et al. Thehermit transposable element of the Australian sheep blowfly,Lucilia cuprina, belongs to thehAT family of transposable elements. Genetica 97, 23–31 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00132577

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00132577

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