title: P element-mediated in vivo deletion analysis of white-apricot: deletions between direct repeats are strongly favored.
abstract: We have isolated and characterized deletions arising within a P transposon, P[hswa], in the presence of P transposase. P[hswa] carries white-apricot (wa) sequences, including a complete copia element, under the control of an hsp70 promoter, and resembles the original wa allele in eye color phenotype. In the presence of P transposase, P[hswa] shows a high overall rate (approximately 3%) of germline mutations that result in increased eye pigmentation. Of 234 derivatives of P[hswa] with greatly increased eye pigmentation, at least 205 carried deletions within copia. Of these, 201 were precise deletions between the directly repeated 276-nucleotide copia long terminal repeats (LTRs), and four were unique deletions. High rates of transposase-induced precise deletion were observed within another P transposon carrying unrelated 599 nucleotide repeats (yeast 2 mu FLP; recombinase target sites) separated by 5.7 kb. Our observation that P element-mediated deletion formation occurs preferentially between direct repeats suggests general methods for controlling deletion formation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kurkulos
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Weinberg
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Mount
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D001483:Base Sequence; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004330:Drosophila / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D005127:Eye Color / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D017344:Genes, Insect; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009713:Nucleotidyltransferases / Q000235:genetics; D010641:Phenotype; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D014170:Transformation, Genetic; D019895:Transposases
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004247:DNA; D009713:Nucleotidyltransferases; D019895:Transposases