Characterization of transcripts from the Dictyostelium discoideum retrotransposable genetic element DRE

All of the approximately 150 copies of the Dictyostelium discoideum retrotransposable element DRE are integrated 50 +/- 4 nucleotides upstream from different transfer RNA genes. These genomic regions are generally devoid of informative DNA why integration of the retrotransposon at these position never causes phenotypic mutations. This property makes DRE attractive as a tool in gene therapy where vectors with predictable integration specificities are still not available. Due to the nature as retrotransposon transcription is a prerequisite for the element to integrate at a new genomic position. Here we describe some transcription properties of DRE based on Northern blot analyses and on the characterization of in vitro synthesized cDNAs.