Efficient and dispersed local P element transposition from Drosophila females.
We have investigated how Drosophila P element insertions are distributed in the chromosomal region near their starting site. A single P element residing in the euchromatin of minichromosome Dp1187 was mobilized following a cross to the delta 2-3 (99B) strain, and progeny bearing transpositions were identified with a minimum of bias by performing Southern blots on progeny. Approximately 1-2% of all progeny minichromosomes contained new insertions. Many of these "local transpositions" landed very close to or within the starting P element; however, nearly 1% of all progeny chromosomes contained new insertions 1-180 kb from the donor element. More local insertions were observed in the progeny of females than from male parents, and most occurred in a preferred orientation relative to the starting element. These observations suggested that donor elements are frequently excised and reinserted locally without ever dissociating from a transposition complex. The high frequency and diverse distribution of local transpositions recovered from females suggested that the efficiency of insertional mutagenesis can be significantly enhanced by using a starting P element(s) located near the target of interest.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Laboratories, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Baltimore, Maryland 21210.
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D000818:Animals; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005804:Genes, Lethal; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D005819:Genetic Markers; D008297:Male; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D012727:Sex Characteristics
D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D005819:Genetic Markers