Identification and Structural Analysis of a Class of Potentially Transposable Solo-LTR in Rice Genome

Two solo-LTRs, named SLTR1 and SLTR2, were found in BAC t17804 and q5343 on rice chromosome 4, respectively. SLTR1 is in a 18 S rRNA gene and SLTR2 is in a retrotransposon. They share sequence homology and show sequence similarity 89.1% and 70.1% to the LTR of rice retrotransposon RIRE8, respectively. SLTR1 and SLTR2 are of gypsy retrotransposons of rice. They are both highly repetitive sequences and widely distributed in the rice genome, as shown by hybridization with specific probes of SLTR1 and SLTR2. Using PCR amplication with primers on flanking sequences of SLTR1 and SLTR2, no bands corresponding to those of BACs were amplified using the rice genomic DNA as template. SLTR1 and SLTR2 did not locate in the relative loci of the rice genome, as supported by hybridization with specific probes of genes interrupted by them. Obviously, SLTR1 and SLTR2 reported here came from different loci of the genome by the transposition. These solo-LTRs may be useful for our rice genome studies.