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Fixation of transposable elements in the Drosophila melanogaster genome

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2005

XULIO MASIDE ,
STAVROULA ASSIMACOPOULOS  and
BRIAN CHARLESWORTH
XULIO MASIDE
Affiliation:
Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, Edinburgh University, King's Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK Present address: Grupo de Xenética Evolutiva, Unidade de Medicina Molecular-Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de Compostela, Choupana s/n, Edificio Consultas planta -2, 15706 Santiago de Compostela, Galiza, Spain. Tel.: +34 981 951491. Fax: +34 981 951473. e-mail: xmaside@usc.es
STAVROULA ASSIMACOPOULOS
Affiliation:
Department of Neurobiology, Pharmacology, and Physiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
BRIAN CHARLESWORTH
Affiliation:
Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, Edinburgh University, King's Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK

Abstract

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We have investigated at the molecular level four cases in which D. melanogaster middle repetitive DNA probes consistently hybridized to a particular band on chromosomes sampled from a D. melanogaster natural population. Two corresponded to true fixations of a roo and a Stalker element, and the others were artefacts of the in situ hybridization technique caused by the presence of genomic DNA flanking the transposable elements (TEs) in the probes. The two fixed elements are located in the β-heterochromatin (20A and 80B, respectively) and are embedded in large clusters of other elements, many of which may also be fixed. We also found evidence that this accumulation is an ongoing process. These results support the hypothesis that TEs accumulate in the non-recombining part of the genome. Their implications for the effects of TEs on determining the chromatin structure of the host genomes are discussed in the light of recent evidence for the role of TE-derived small interfering-RNAs as cis-acting determinants of heterochromatin formation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Genetics Research , Volume 85 , Issue 3 , June 2005 , pp. 195 - 203
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press