Vladimir Kapitonov

Research Scientist

Vladimir Kapitonov
Contact Information
Education
Ph.D., Genetics, Institute of Cytology & Genetics, Novosibirsk, 1991
M.Sc., Physics, Novosibirsk State Technical University and Novosibirsk Institute of Nuclear Physics, 1980
MBL Affiliation
Bay Paul Center
Research Area
Evolution
Genomics

Dr. Vladimir Kapitonov is a theoretical evolutionary biologist with a background in genomics, genetics, molecular biology, computational biology, and evolution. For more than 25 years, his work has focused on the computational discovery and analysis of new types of transposable elements (“jumping genes” or mobile genetic elements). He studies how these elements evolve, how they coevolve with their host genomes, how some of them become “domesticated” and repurposed by the host, and how they influence the emergence of new regulatory and functional networks in genomes. Dr. Kapitonov is a leading expert on transposable elements and investigates them across a wide variety of organisms, including rotifers, ostracods, cnidarians, insects, vertebrates, fungi, plants, protists, and bacteria. He is a member of the Mobile Genetic Element Cluster at the MBL.

Vladimir Kapitonov works with
Isa Schoen
Isa Schön
Senior Researcher
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
Selected Publications

Kesselring L, Miskey C, Zuliani C, Querques I, Kapitonov V, Laukó A, Fehér A, Palazzo A, Diem T, Lustig J, Sebe A, Wang Y, Dinnyés A, Izsvák Z, Barabas A, Ivics Z (2020) A single amino acid switch converts the Sleeping Beauty transposase into an efficient unidirectional excisionase with utility in stem cell reprogramming. Nucleic Acids Res 48:316. PMC6943129

Grabundzija I, Messing SA, Thomas J, Cosby RL, Bilic I, Miskey C, Gogol-Döring A, Kapitonov V, Diem T, Dalda A, Jurka J, Pritham EJ, Dyda F, Izsvák Z, Ivics Z (2016) A Helitron transposon reconstructed from bats reveals a novel mechanism of genome shuffling in eukaryotes. Nat Commun 7:10716. PMC4778049.

Kapitonov VV, Makarova KS, Koonin EV (2015) ISC, a novel group of bacterial and archaeal DNA transposons that encode Cas9 homologs. J Bacteriol 198(5):797. PMC4810608.

Kapitonov VV, Koonin, E.V. (2015). Evolution of the RAG1-RAG2 locus: both proteins came from the same transposon. Biology Direct 10:20. PMC4411706.

Yutin N, Shevchenko S, Kapitonov V, Krupovic M, Koonin EV (2015) A novel group of diverse Polinton-like viruses discovered by metagenome analysis. BMC Biol 13:95. PMC4642659.

Moroz L, Kocot KM, Citarella MR, Dosung S, Norekian TP, Povolotskaya IS, Grigorenko AP, Dailey C, Berezikov E, Buckley KM, Ptitsyn A, Reshetov D, Mukherjee K, Moroz TP, Bobkova Y, Yu F, Kapitonov VV, Jurka J, Bobkov YV, Swore JJ et al. (2014) The ctenophore genome and the evolutionary origins of neural systems. Nature 510:109. PMC4337882.

Kojima, KK, Kapitonov VV, Jurka J (2011) Recent expansion of a new Ingi-related clade of Vingi non-LTR retrotransposons in Hedgehogs. Mol Biol Evol 28:17. PMC3002237

Hellsten U, Harland RM, Gilchrist MJ, Hendrix D, Jurka J, Kapitonov V, Ovcharenko I, Putnam NH et al. (2010) The genome of the Western clawed frog Xenopus tropicalis. Science 328(5978):633. PMC2994648.

Kapitonov VV, Tempel S, Jurka J (2009) Simple and fast classification of non-LTR retrotransposons based on phylogeny of their RT domain protein sequences. Gene 448:207. PMC2829327.

Bao W, Jurka MG, Kapitonov VV, Jurka J (2009) New superfamilies of eukaryotic DNA transposons and their internal divisions. Mol Biol Evol 26:983. PMC2727372.

Kapitonov, VV, Jurka J (2008) A universal classification of eukaryotic transposable elements implemented in Repbase. Nat Rev Genet 9:411. PMID:18421312.

Putnam NH, Butts T, Ferrier DE, Furlong RF, Hellsten U, Kawashima T, Robinson-Rechavi M, Shoguchi E, Terry A, Yu JK, Benito-Gutierrez EL, Dubchak I, Garcia-Fernandez J, Gibson-Brown JJ, Grigoriev IV, Horton AC, de Jong PJ, Jurka J, Kapitonov VV, Kohara Y, Kuroki Y, Lindquist E et al. (2008) The amphioxus genome and the evolution of the chordate karyotype. Nature 453(7198):1064. PMID:18563158.

Sinzelle L, Kapitonov VV, Grzela DP, Jursch T, Jurka J, Izsvák Z, Ivics Z (2008) Transposition of a reconstructed Harbinger element in human cells and functional homology with two transposon-derived cellular genes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105(12):4715. PMC2290759.

Kapitonov VV, Jurka J (2007) Helitrons on a roll: eukaryotic rolling-circle transposons. Trends Genet 23(10):521. PMID:17850916.

Putnam NH, Srivastava M, Hellsten U, Dirks B, Chapman J, Salamov A, Terry A, Shapiro H, Lindquist E, Kapitonov VV, Jurka J, Genikhovich G, Grigoriev IV, Lucas SM, Steele RE, Finnerty JR, Technau U, Martindale MQ, Rokhsar DS (2007) Sea anemone genome reveals ancestral eumetazoan gene repertoire and genomic organization. Science 317(5834):86 PMID:17615350.

Jurka, J, Kapitonov VV, Kohany O, Jurka M (2007) Repetitive sequences in complex genomes: structure and evolution. Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet 8:241. PMID:17506661.

Kapitonov VV, Jurka J (2006) Self-synthesizing DNA transposons in eukaryotes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103(12):4540. PMC164487.

Kapitonov VV, Jurka J (2005) RAG1 core and V(D)J recombination signal sequences were derived from Transib transposons. PLoS Biol 3(6):e181. PMC1131882.

Jurka, J., Kapitonov, VV, Pavlicek A, Klonowski P, Kohany O, Walichiewicz J (2005) Repbase Update, a database of eukaryotic repetitive elements. Cytogenet Genome Res 110:462. PMID:16093699.

Kapitonov VV, Jurka J (2003) Molecular paleontology of transposable elements in the Drosophila melanogaster genome. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100(11):6569. PMC164487.

Kapitonov VV, Jurka J (2001) Rolling-circle transposons in eukaryotes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98(15):8714. PMC37501.