Disease relevance of bel

• Some BEL-like elements have captured an envelope gene, probably from other retroelements in some cases but from a phlebovirus in one case [1].

High impact information on bel

• Other Drosophila transposons also appear to mediate chromosome restructuring by ectopic recombination; these include the retrotransposons BEL, roo, Doc and I and the foldback element FB [2].
• Consistent with an essential cellular function, strong loss of function mutations in bel are recessive lethal with a larval growth defect phenotype [3].
• We find that Bel and Vas colocalize in nuage and at the oocyte posterior during oogenesis, and that bel function is required for female fertility [3].
• CONCLUSION: Sinbad is a Pao/BEL type retrotransposon from the genome of S. mansoni [4].
• BACKGROUND: Of the major families of long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons, the Pao/BEL family is probably the least well studied [4].

Biological context of bel

• The Pao/BEL group appears to be comprised of at least five discrete subfamilies, which tend to cluster with host species phylogeny [4].

References