Characterization of a LINE-1 cDNA that originated from RNA present in ribonucleoprotein particles: implications for the structure of an active mouse LINE-1

Full-length, sense-strand, long interspersed element-1 (LINE-1 or L1) RNA is found as an RNA-protein complex in mouse embryonal carcinoma cells. Since this complex is a likely intermediate in LINE-1 transposition, its RNA may be enriched for the functional, or active, subset of mouse L1 sequences. For this reason, a cDNA library was constructed from RNA prepared from these ribonucleoprotein particles. The isolation and complete DNA sequence of one clone that is a strong candidate to be a functional version of mouse L1 is reported here. The structure of this element suggests a revision of the predicted sequence of an active mouse L1 and provides a tag that can be used to isolate its locus in the genome.