Question

For each of the following, indicate whether it is a characteristic of an active autonomous LTR retrotransposon, an active non-LTR retrotransposon, both retrotransposons or neither retrotransposon. Encodes an enzyme with reverse transcriptase activity Performs transposition via an RNA intermediate It is transcribed into an RNA copy Contains inverted repeats

Answer 1

Retrotransposons-- these are transposable elements which are first transcribed into RNA intermediate and then reverse transcribed into DNA.

Active autonomous LTR retrotransposons shows first 3 characteristics while active non- LTR can not synthesize machinery for transposition and thus depend on autonomous retrotransposons and shows only 2 and 3 character. Neither retrotransposons contains inverted repeat. So character 2 and 3 are shared by both retrotransposons. Charectet 1 is specific to active autonomous LTR retrotransposons.