title: hAT transposable elements and their derivatives: an analysis in the 12 Drosophila genomes.
abstract: Transposable elements (TEs) comprise a significant fraction of the genome, and some models of the TE "life cycle" suggest that, in the last phases of the cycle, TEs should be represented, in the genomes, by inactive and degenerated copies. In this study, we analyzed, using a bioinformatics approach, the autonomous hAT elements and their derivatives (active non-autonomous, MITE relatives and degenerated copies) in 12 Drosophila genomes. We found 28 hAT elements that had derivatives. Most copies had features that suggested that they were active, while only a few degenerated copies were found. Because hAT elements comprise an evolutionarily old superfamily, one should expect to find many degenerated copies within the genome, although this was not observed in our study. These results suggest that primarily active copies of hAT elements are maintained in the euchromatic regions of the genome and that degenerated copies are removed from the genome by natural selection.
authors.affiliation: Curso de Pós-Graduação em Genética, Conservação e Biologia Evolutiva, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, AM, Brazil.
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Freitas Ortiz
authors.forename: Karina Rodrigues
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Lorenzatto
authors.forename: Bruna Renata Silva
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Corrêa
authors.forename: Elgion Lucio Silva
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Loreto
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics*; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics*; D049750:Genome, Insect; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements