高等植物helitron转座子的研究进展

作为重复序列的一种主要类型,转座子在高等植物基因组中具有相当丰富的DNA含量,在改变基因结构、调节基因表达、影响基因组进化,以及创造新基因的过程中扮演着重要的角色。Helitron转座子是DNA转座子的一种,在转座过程中经常捕获基因或基因片段,以及插入到基因附近或基因内部,因此在改变基因组构成、影响基因组的进化过程以及改变基因型和表型等方面起着重要作用。该文对国内外近年来有关植物基因组中helitron转座子的结构特征、鉴定和分类方法、基因组中的含量和在染色体上的分布,以及转座扩增和基因片段的捕获等方面的研究进展进行了综述,并对helitron转座子研究过程中存在的问题进行了讨论,对今后helitron相关的研究进行了展望。

Research Progress on Helitron Transposable Elements in High Plants

As one of the major types of repetitive sequences,transposable elements (TEs) are the most abundant DNA in high plants,and have been recognized to play important roles in altering gene structures,regulating gene expression,affecting genome evolution and creating new genes.Helitron TEs belong to DNA transposons,and have been found to frequently capture gene or gene fragments,and often insert into genes or nearby during transpositional process.Therefore it was believed to be important in genomic composition,genome evolution,and altering genotype and phenotype.In this review,we introduced the recent progress on helitrons,and then summarized the recent progress on the structural characteristics,the methods for identification and classification,the DNA content in genomes,the distribution across chromosomes,the transpositional replication and the capture of gene fragments.Finally,we discussed the problems for the current helitron study,and the perspectives for future research.