Paternal Induction of Hybrid Dysgenesis inDrosophila melanogasterIs Weakly Correlated with BothP-Element andhoboElement Dosage.
Transposable elements (TEs) are virtually ubiquitous components of genomes, yet they often impose significant fitness consequences on their hosts. In addition to producing specific deleterious mutations by insertional inactivation, TEs also impose general fitness costs by inducing DNA damage and participating in ectopic recombination. These latter fitness costs are often assumed to be dosage-dependent, with stronger effects occurring in the presence of higher TE copy numbers. We test this assumption inDrosophila melanogasterby considering the relationship between the copy number of two active DNA transposons,P-element andhoboelement, and the incidence of hybrid dysgenesis, a sterility syndrome associated with transposon activity in the germline. By harnessing a subset of theDrosophilaGenetic Reference Panel (DGRP), a group of fully-sequencedD. melanogasterstrains, we describe quantitative and structural variation inP-elements andhoboelements among wild-derived genomes and associate these factors with hybrid dysgenesis. We find that the incidence of hybrid dysgenesis is associated with bothP-element andhoboelement copy number in a dosage-dependent manner. However, the relationship is weak for both TEs, suggesting that dosage alone explains only a small part of TE-associated fitness costs.
Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Texas 77204.|Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843.
Satyam P
SP
Srivastav
Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Texas 77204 eskelleher@uh.edu.
Erin S
0000-0002-1827-067X
ES
Kelleher
D000818:Animals; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D018628:Gene Dosage; D056084:Genetic Fitness; D006059:Gonadal Dysgenesis / Q000235:genetics*; D006824:Hybridization, Genetic; D008297:Male
D004251:DNA Transposable Elements
gonadal atrophy; regulation of transposition; transposable element