TY - JOUR AU - Damert, Annette PY - 2020 DA - 2020/07/11 TI - LINE-1 ORF1p does not determine substrate preference for human/orangutan SVA and gibbon LAVA JO - Mobile DNA SP - 27 VL - 11 IS - 1 AB - Non-autonomous VNTR (Variable Number of Tandem Repeats) composite retrotransposons – SVA (SINE-R-VNTR-Alu) and LAVA (L1-Alu-VNTR-Alu) – are specific to hominoid primates. SVA expanded in great apes, LAVA in gibbon. Both SVA and LAVA have been shown to be mobilized by the autonomous LINE-1 (L1)-encoded protein machinery in a cell-based assay in trans. The efficiency of human SVA retrotransposition in vitro has, however, been considerably lower than would be expected based on recent pedigree-based in vivo estimates. The VNTR composite elements across hominoids – gibbon LAVA, orangutan SVA_A descendants and hominine SVA_D descendants – display characteristic structures of the 5′ Alu-like domain and the VNTR. Different partner L1 subfamilies are currently active in each of the lineages. The possibility that the lineage-specific types of VNTR composites evolved in response to evolutionary changes in their autonomous partners, particularly in the nucleic acid binding L1 ORF1-encoded protein, has not been addressed. SN - 1759-8753 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s13100-020-00222-y DO - 10.1186/s13100-020-00222-y ID - Damert2020 ER -