[Long terminal repeats of drosophila mobile elements direct transcript ion in Escherichia coli cells]

Retrotransposons of D. melanogaster are similar to vertebrate retroviruses in their structure and function. Long terminal repeats (LTR) of retrotransposons contain specific eukaryotic promoters and transcriptional control sequences. Recently it has been shown that several retroviral LTRs contain in addition some promoter-like sequences that are functional in E. coli cells. Plasmid constructions containing the mdg1 and mdg4 LTR fragments and the standard reporter chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (cat) gene are also able to direct transcription and expression of the reporter cat gene in E. coli cells. Analysis of the primary structure of corresponding LTR fragments revealed sequences similar to conserved nucleotides of the putative prokaryotic promoter.