RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The RAG transposon is active through the deuterostome evolution and domesticated in jawed vertebrates
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 100735
DO 10.1101/100735
A1 Jose Ricardo Morales Poole
A1 Sheng Feng Huang
A1 Anlong Xu
A1 Justine Bayet
A1 Pierre Pontarotti
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/03/17/100735.abstract
AB RAG1 and RAG2 are essential subunits of the V(D)J recombinase required for the generation of the variability of antibodies and T-cell receptors in jawed vertebrates. It was demonstrated that the amphioxus homologue of RAG1-RAG2 is encoded in an active transposon, belonging to the transposase DDE superfamily. The data provided supports to the possibility that the RAG transposon has been active through the deuterostome evolution and is still active in several lineages. The RAG transposon corresponds to several families present in deuterostomes. RAG1-RAG2 V(D)J recombinase evolved from one of them, partially due to the new ability of the transposon to interact with the cellular reparation machinery. Considering the fact that the RAG transposon survived millions of years in many different lineages, in multiple copies, and that DDE transposases evolved their association with proteins involved in repair mechanisms, we propose that the apparition of V(D)J recombination machinery could be a predictable genetic event.