The CARE-2 and Rel-2 repetitive elements of Candida albicans contain LTR fragments of a new retrotransposon

CARE-2 and Rel-2 are dispersed, repetitive elements of Candida albicans. Hybridisation experiments suggest that they are present at 10–20 copies per genome and appear on most, if not all, of the chromosomes. A high degree of interstrain variation has been demonstrated for CARE-2, making it of use for strain typing. Until now, however, the nature of the repetitive elements within CARE-2 and Rel-2 was unknown. We show here that CARE-2 and Rel-2 contain long terminal repeat (LTR) fragments of a new retrotransposon. These LTRs, which we designate kappa, are partially responsible for the repetitive nature of CARE-2 and Rel-2. Complete copies of the kappa elements are present elsewhere in the genome and adjacent to some are sequences characteristic of the internal regions of retrotransposons. An apparently high degree of scrambling of the kappa elements suggests that they may represent a hotspot for mutation and recombination in C. albicans.