A comparative analysis of the amounts and dynamics of transposable elements in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans.
Genes are important in defining genetic variability, but they do not constitute the largest component of genomes, which in most organisms contain large amounts of various repeated sequences including transposable elements (TEs), which have been shown to account for most of the genome size. TEs contribute to genetic diversity by their mutational potential as a result of their ability to insert into genes or gene regulator regions, to promote chromosomal rearrangements, and to interfere with gene networks. Also, TEs may be activated by environmental stresses (such as temperature or radiation) that interfere with epigenetic regulation systems, and makes them powerful mutation agents in nature. To understand the relationship between genotype and phenotype, we need to analyze the portions of the genome corresponding to TEs in great detail, and to decipher their relationships with the genes. For this purpose, we carried out comparative analyses of various natural populations of the closely-related species Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans, which differ with regard to their TE amounts as well as their ecology and population size.
Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR5558, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, Villeurbanne, France. Cristina.vieira@univ-lyon1.fr
Cristina
C
Vieira
Marie
M
Fablet
Emmanuelle
E
Lerat
Matthieu
M
Boulesteix
Rita
R
Rebollo
Nelly
N
Burlet
Abdou
A
Akkouche
Benjamin
B
Hubert
Hussein
H
Mortada
Christian
C
Biémont
D000818:Animals; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics*; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics*; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D016678:Genome / Q000235:genetics
D004251:DNA Transposable Elements