Widespread distribution and evolutionary patterns of mariner-like elements among various spiders and insects

Abstract

Mariner-like elements (MLEs) are DNA transposons that are prevalent in a wide range of eukaryotic genomes and are considered to be inserted into their host genomes via horizontal transfer. In this study, we performed a phylogenetic analysis to compare MLEs obtained from 18 species of three orders, Araneae, Hymenoptera, and Lepidoptera, with previously reported MLEs, which were classified into the mellifera subfamily. These MLEs shared high sequence similarity (92.78%). Furthermore, MLEs obtained from four distinct species contained an intact or almost intact open reading frame that encoded a putative transposase. The phylogenetic differences between these MLEs and their respective host species as well as the high sequence similarity of MLEs clearly suggests that horizontal transfer has recently occurred among species than previously reported MLEs. We discuss their possible modes of horizontal transfer based on the analysis of this study.