Heterochromatic distribution of HeT-A- and TART-like sequences in several Drosophila species.
Drosophila melanogaster telomeres contain arrays of two non-LTR retrotransposons called HeT-A and TART. Previous studies have shown that HeT-A- and TART-like sequences are also located at non-telomeric sites in the Y chromosome heterochromatin. By in situ hybridization experiments, we mapped TART sequences in the h16 region of the long arm close to the centromere of the Y chromosome of D. melanogaster. HeT-A sequences were localized in two different regions on the Y chromosome, one very close to the centromere in the short arm (h18-h19) and the other in the long arm (h13-h14). To assess a possible heterochromatic location of TART and HeT-A elements in other Drosophila species, we performed in situ hybridization experiments, using both TART and HeT-A probes, on mitotic and polytene chromosomes of D. simulans, D. sechellia, D. mauritiana, D. yakuba and D. teissieri. We found that TART and HeT-A probes hybridize at specific heterochromatic regions of the Y chromosome in all Drosophila species that we analyzed.
Berloco
M
M
Dipartimento di Anatomia Patologica e di Genetica (DAPEG), Università degli Studi di Bari, Bari, Italy.
Fanti
L
L
Sheen
F
F
Levis
R W
RW
Pimpinelli
S
S
D020413:3' Untranslated Regions / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster; D015321:Gene Rearrangement; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D018626:Retroelements / Q000235:genetics*; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics
D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D018626:Retroelements