Tang, M., Cecconi, C., Kim, H., Bustamante, C., Rio, D.C. (2005). Guanosine triphosphate acts as a cofactor to promote assembly of initial P-element transposase-DNA synaptic complexes. Genes Dev. 19(12): 1422--1425.
FlyBase ID
FBrf0187598
Publication Type
Research paper
Abstract
P transposable elements in Drosophila are members of a larger class of mobile elements that move using a cut-and-paste mechanism. P-element transposase uses guanosine triphosphate (GTP) as a cofactor for transposition. Here, we use atomic force microscopy (AFM) to visualize protein-DNA complexes formed during the initial stages of P-element transposition. These studies reveal that GTP acts to promote assembly of the first detectable noncovalent precleavage synaptic complex. This initial complex then randomly and independently cleaves each P-element end. These data show that GTP acts to promote protein-DNA assembly, and may explain why P-element excision often leads to unidirectional deletions.
