title: Experimental evolution reveals hyperparasitic interactions among transposable elements.
abstract: Transposable elements (TEs) are repeated DNA sequences that can constitute a substantial part of genomes. Studying TEs' activity, interactions, and accumulation dynamics is thus of major interest to understand genome evolution. Here, we describe the transposition dynamics of cut-and-paste mariner elements during experimental (short- and longer-term) evolution in Drosophila melanogaster Flies with autonomous and nonautonomous mariner copies were introduced in populations containing no active mariner, and TE accumulation was tracked by quantitative PCR for up to 100 generations. Our results demonstrate that (i) active mariner elements are highly invasive and characterized by an elevated transposition rate, confirming their capacity to spread in populations, as predicted by the "selfish-DNA" mechanism; (ii) nonautonomous copies act as parasites of autonomous mariner elements by hijacking the transposition machinery produced by active mariner, which can be considered as a case of hyperparasitism; (iii) this behavior resulted in a failure of active copies to amplify which systematically drove the whole family to extinction in less than 100 generations. This study nicely illustrates how the presence of transposition-competitive variants can deeply impair TE dynamics and gives clues to the extraordinary diversity of TE evolutionary histories observed in genomes.
authors.affiliation: Évolution, Génomes, Comportement, Écologie, CNRS, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: Émilie
authors.initials: É
authors.lastname: Robillard
authors.affiliation: Évolution, Génomes, Comportement, Écologie, CNRS, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: Arnaud
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Le Rouzic
authors.affiliation: Évolution, Génomes, Comportement, Écologie, CNRS, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Évolution, Génomes, Comportement, Écologie, CNRS, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Capy
authors.affiliation: Évolution, Génomes, Comportement, Écologie, CNRS, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France aurelie.hua-van@egce.cnrs-gif.fr.
authors.forename: Aurélie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hua-Van
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D019020:Directed Molecular Evolution; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D049750:Genome, Insect; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D010641:Phenotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013045:Species Specificity; D019895:Transposases / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C111652:mariner transposases; D019895:Transposases
keywords: Drosophila; experimental evolution; hyperparasitism; invasion dynamics; transposable elements