Transcriptionally promiscuous “blurry” promoters in Tc1/mariner transposons allow transcription in distantly related genomes

BACKGROUND: We have recently described a peculiar feature of the promoters in two Drosophila Tc1-like elements, Bari1 and Bari3. The AT-richness and the presence of weak core-promoter motifs make these promoters, that we have defined “blurry”, able to activate transcription of a reporter gene in cellular systems as diverse as fly, human, yeast and bacteria. In order to clarify whether the blurry promoter is a specific feature of the Bari transposon family, we have extended this study to promoters isolated from three additional DNA transposon and from two additional LTR retrotransposons. RESULTS: Here we show that the blurry promoter is also a feature of two vertebrate transposable elements, Sleeping Beauty and Hsmar1, belonging to the Tc1/mariner superfamily. In contrast, this feature is not shared by the promoter of the hobo transposon, which belongs to the hAT superfamily, nor by LTR retrotransposon-derived promoters, which, in general, do not activate transcription when introduced into non-related genomes. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the blurry promoter could be a shared feature of the members of the Tc1/mariner superfamily with possible evolutionary and biotechnological implications. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13100-019-0155-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.