title: Interelement selection in the regulatory region of the copia retrotransposon.
abstract: We report the results of an analysis of naturally occurring cis-regulatory variation within and between two families of the copia Drosophila long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposon. The copia 5' LTR and adjacent untranslated leader region (ULR) consists of a number of well-characterized sequence motifs which play a role in regulating expression of the element. In order to understand the evolutionary forces which may be responsible for generating and maintaining copia regulatory sequence variation, we have quantified levels of naturally occurring copia LTR-ULR nucleotide variation and subjected the data to a series of tests of neutrality. Our analysis indicates that the copia LTR-ULR has been subject to negative purifying selection within families and positive adaptive selection between families. We discuss these findings with respect to the regulatory evolution of retrotransposons and the phenomenon of interelement selection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA. king@parvati.lv-whi.nevada.edu
authors.forename: I K
authors.initials: IK
authors.lastname: Jordan
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: McDonald
mesh_terms: D020121:5' Untranslated Regions; D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites / Q000235:genetics; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D014644:Genetic Variation; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases; D018626:Retroelements / Q000235:genetics*; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D020079:Terminal Repeat Sequences
chemical_list: D020121:5' Untranslated Regions; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D019476:Insect Proteins; D018626:Retroelements; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases; C063089:Copia protein, Drosophila