Keywords: elements

Degeneration and domestication of a selfish gene in yeast: Molecular evolution versus site-directed mutagenesis

Koufopanou, VB, A.,  Molecular Biology and Evolution,  22:1535-1538. 2005.
VDE is a homing endonuclease gene in yeasts with an unusual evolutionary history including horizontal transmission, degeneration, and domestication into the mating-type switching locus HO. We investigate here the effects of these features on its molecular evolution. In addition, ...
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Adaptation for horizontal transfer in a homing endonuclease

Koufopanou, VG, M. R.; Burt, A.,  Molecular Biology and Evolution,  19:239-246. 2002.
Selfish genes of no function other than self-propagation are susceptible to degeneration if they become fixed in a population. and regular transfer to new species may be the only means for their long-term persistence. To test this idea we surveyed 24 species of yeast for VDE, a ...
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Outcrossed sex allows a selfish gene to invade yeast populations

Goddard, MRG, D.; Burt, A.,  Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences,  268:2537-2542. 2001.
Homing endonuclease genes (HEGs) in eukaryotes are optional genes that have no obvious effect on host phenotype except for causing chromosomes not containing a cop), of the gene to be cut, thus causing them to be inherited at a greater than Mendelian rate via gene conversion. ...
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Recurrent invasion and extinction of a selfish gene

Goddard, MRB, A.,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,  96:13880-13885. 1999.
Homing endonuclease genes show super-Mendelian inheritance, which allows them to spread in populations even when they are of no benefit to the host organism. To test the idea that regular horizontal transmission is necessary for the long-term persistence of these genes, we ...
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Mariner transposition and transformation of the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti

C. J. Coates, N. Jasinskiene, L. Miyashiro and A. A. James,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,  95:3748-3751. 1998.
The mariner transposable element is capable of interplasmid transposition in the embryonic soma of the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti. To determine if this demonstrated mobility could be utilized to genetically transform the mosquito, a modified mariner element marked with ...
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