The vicinity of a broken chromosome end affects P element mobilization in Drosophila melanogaster.
Broken chromosome ends are believed to be capped by a terminal protein complex, and can be maintained in Drosophila melanogaster for many generations. We investigated whether the vicinity of a chromosome end affected P element mobilization and the subsequent repair of the resulting DNA lesion. High levels of P element excision were observed when at least 5 kb of DNA was located between the P element and the end of the chromosome, but recovery of chromosomes from which the P element had been excised was greatly reduced when the chromosome end was positioned less than 5 kb away from the original P element insertion site. Moreover, when the P element was mobilized in terminal deficiency ( y (TD )) alleles, excision events were accompanied by deletions of sequences originally located distal to the P element.
Melnikova
L
L
Department of the Control of Genetic Processes, Institute of Gene Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119334, Moscow, Russian Federation.
Biessmann
H
H
Georgiev
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P
D000818:Animals; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D017931:DNA Primers; D004260:DNA Repair; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics*; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D040461:Gene Components; D010641:Phenotype; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics*
D017931:DNA Primers; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements