RIG: Integration Mechanisms of the LTR-Retrotransposon Tf1 and its Relationship to Chromatin Structure.

Winston-Salem State University, Winston Salem NC

Investigators

Abstract

An important step in the cycle of long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons is the ability to replicate a copy of the transposon cDNA - produced after reverse transcription of the transposon RNA genome - and insert - using the transposon-encoded integrase - within the host's chromatin. The host chromatin -consisting mainly of euchromatic (active in gene expression), and heterochromatic (silent in gene expression) regions - also contains structural features associated with transcription of genes. Regardless of what region of the host chromatin is selected for targeting, transposon insertions alter the host genetic material and may create mutations in genes that are essential for the maintenance of the host. The mechanism that dictates specificity of insertion - why a transposon selects a certain region of chromatin for insertion - remains unclear. A better understanding of the process of such insertion could enable the scientific community to devise new strategies to control or manipulate the insertions of transposons . The objective of this research is to analyze regions of the chromatin selected for Tf1 integration. The investigator hypothesizes that solo-LTRs - footprints of previous endogeneous integration events - mark regions of the chromatin preferred for retrotransposon integration. Analysis of such regions will thus generate new information concerning target site selection by the retrotransposon Tf1 in a mammalian-like host. This project will be performed at Winston-Salem State University, an historically black university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, thereby presenting an attractive mechanism to provide education and research experience to minority undergraduate students and increase the pool of underrepresented minority researchers.