TUBIS, a fossilized retroposon in the tubulin gene cluster of Trypanosoma brucei.

The genome of Trypanosoma brucei contains many copies of TRS/ingi, a retroposon like element of about 5 kb length. One vestigial member of this family, TUBIS, is found in the tubulin gene cluster. The element has sequence homologies to reverse transcriptase. The similarity to TRS/ingi is lost after 4 kb, resulting in a 3′ truncated element. The sequence following downstream shows similarities to 5′ flanking regions of VSG genes.