The Gypsy Database (GyDB) of mobile genetic elements

Abstract

In this article, we introduce the Gypsy Database (GyDB) of mobile genetic elements, an in-progress database devoted to the non-redundant analysis and evolutionary-based classification of mobile genetic elements. In this first version, we contemplate eukaryotic Ty3/Gypsy and Retroviridae long terminal repeats (LTR) retroelements. Phylogenetic analyses based on the gag-pro-pol internal region commonly presented by these two groups strongly support a certain number of previously described Ty3/Gypsy lineages originally reported from reverse-transcriptase (RT) analyses. Vertebrate retroviruses (Retroviridae) are also constituted in several monophyletic groups consistent with genera proposed by the ICTV nomenclature, as well as with the current tendency to classify both endogenous and exogenous retroviruses by three major classes (I, II and III). Our inference indicates that all protein domains codified by the gag-pro-pol internal region of these two groups agree in a collective presentation of a particular evolutionary history, which may be used as a main criterion to differentiate their molecular diversity in a comprehensive collection of phylogenies and non-redundant molecular profiles useful in the identification of new Ty3/Gypsy and Retroviridae species. The GyDB project is available at http://gydb.uv.es.

Figure 1.

(a) Genomic structure of a basal retrovirus, and logos to graphically represent the consensus for both the PBS and the PPT motifs. (b) Screenshot of the GyDB websites specific to families and protein domains.

Figure 2.

MRC tree inferred for Ty3/Gypsy and Retroviridae LTR retroelements using the parsimony method and based on a concatenated gag-pro-pol multiple alignment. Host organisms and monophyletic clusters are detailed at left. MRC trees usually consist of all groups that occur more than 50% of the time, we take consensus values higher than 55 as an equivalent-bootstrapping reference.

Figure 3.

Database arrangement and navigation.

Figure 4.

(a) Pairwise alignment between the ORFX MRC sequence and the PyERV–ORF X. (b) Multiple alignment.