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Cover An analysis of the genome sequence of Schizosaccharomyces pombe for transposons identified 186 insertions of long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons. Although the vast majority of these recombined to form single LTRs, they comprise 1.1% of the genome. A phylogenetic study revealed nine families of LTRs all related to Tf1 and Tf2, the transposons that multiplied most recently. Interestingly, most of the 186 insertions occurred 100 to 400 nucleotides upstream of protein coding sequences, suggesting a mechanism that inserts the transposons at pol II promoters. (For details, see Bowen et al., pp. 1984–1997.)
