Description

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Chapaev-2_CE is a young family of DNA transposons. The genome contains four copies of Chapaev-2_CE that are <2% divergent from the consensus. Chapaev-2_CE belongs to the Chapaev superfamily. Hallmarks of the Chapaev transposons are 4-bp target-site duplications, terminal inverted repeats with the conserved '5-CAC and GTG-3' termini, and the Chapaev transposase. The Chapaev transposase is characterized by the conserved D-x(60-80)-D-x(220-290)-E catalytic triad. Chapaev transposons populate genomes of different animals, including sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, amphioxus Branchiostoma floridae, starlet sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, sea hare mollusc Aplysia californica, mosquitoes Aedes aegypti and Culex pipiens, and nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The N-terminal portion of Chapaev transposase in Chapaev-1_ACa, Chapaev-2_ACa, Chapaev-3_ACa, Chapaev-1_BF, Chapaev-2_BF, Chapaev-1_NV, Chapaev-2_NV, Chapaev-3_NV, and Chapaev-1_SP is similar to the N-terminal portion of RAG1 (100-370 aa in the human RAG1). It includes a novel type of zinc finger, called Chapa: H-X7-C-R-X-C-G-X35-D-X4-H-X4-C-X2-C-W-Xn-C-X2-C-X8-G. In the amphioxus and anemone Chapaevs, the N-terminal portion contains also the RING finger motif. Some Chapaev transposases (e.g. Chapaev-2_ACa) show low similarity to the RAG1 core.