A biochemical approach to determine the target site recognition mechanism of the R2 retrotransposable elements

Non-LTR Retrotransposons (NLRs) are selfish mobile genetic elements which parasitize the genomes of many organisms including humans. These elements transpose through an RNA intermediate and integrate directly into their genomic site using reverse transcription, a process called Target Primed Reverse Transcription (TPRT). Members of this family of transposons are abundant in the genomes of many eukaryotes including mammals, reptiles, fish, and insects. Several NLR family members such as R2 and NeSL-1 avoid causing deleterious mutations by specifically targeting repetitive genomic loci such as the 28S ribosomal DNA gene and the Spliced leader-1 exon respectively. This literature review focuses on the integration mechanism and evolution of NLRs, specifically R2.