1*

1

The completion of the draft sequence of the rhesus macaque genome allowed us to study the genomic composition and evolution of transposable elements in this representative of the Old World monkey lineage, a group of diverse primates closely related to humans. The L1 family of long interspersed elements appears to have evolved as a single lineage, and Alu elements have evolved into four currently active lineages. We also found evidence of elevated horizontal transmissions of retroviruses and the absence of DNA transposon activity in the Old World monkey lineage. In addition, 100 precursors of composite SVA (short interspersed element, variable number of tandem repeat, and Alu) elements were identified, with the majority being shared by the common ancestor of humans and rhesus macaques. Mobile elements compose roughly 50% of primate genomes, and our findings illustrate their diversity and strong influence on genome evolution between closely related species.

¹ Department of Biological Sciences, Biological Computation and Visualization Center, Center for Bio-Modular Multi-Scale Systems, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.
² Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA98103, USA.
³ Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
⁴ Department of Computer Science, Center for Computation and Technology (CCT), Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA70803, USA.

^* These authors contributed equally to this work.

Present address: Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah Health Sciences Center, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA

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