A new P element subfamily from Drosophila tristis, D. ambigua, and D. obscura.
A new P element subfamily, designated T-type, was found in the genomes of the three closely related species Drosophila ambigua, Drosophila obscura, and Drosophila tristis. The subfamily comprises both full-sized and internally deleted P elements. The T-type element of D. ambigua is longer than the canonical P elements owing to a 300-bp insertion in the 3' noncoding region. Tandemly arranged T-type elements were detected in D. ambigua and D. tristis. The overall structure of T-type elements resembles that of the Drosophila melanogaster P element and the termini are formed by perfect inverted repeats of 33 bp. However, none of the elements studied so far have intact reading frames. Sequence comparisons with other P element subfamilies from the obscura group indicate that the T-type elements are most closely related to the terminally truncated P homologues of Drosophila guanche and Drosophila subobscura. Therefore they can be considered as the lineage-specific P transposons of the obscura group. Furthermore, this finding indicates that the clustered P homologues of D. guanche and D. subobscura must be derived from transpositionally active P elements rather than from an immobile genomic sequence.
Institut für Medizinische Biologie, AG Allgemeine Genetik, Universität Wien, Austria.
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Hagemann
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Haring
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Pinsker
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid
D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004247:DNA