Abstract
A novel retrotransposon, aurora, containing 324 by long terminal repeats (LTRs) was detected in Drosophila melanogaster as a 5 kb insertion in the heterochromatic Stellate gene. This insertion causes a 5 bp duplication of the integration site. Southern analysis and in situ hybridization data show that all detectable copies of aurora are immobilized in the D. melanogaster heterochromatin. However, mobile copies of aurora were revealed in the cuchromatin of D. simulans. The element was also found in various species of the melanogaster subgroup and in the D. virilis genome.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aeby P, Spicher A, Chastonay Y, Miller F, Tobler H (1986) Structure and genomic organization of proretrovirus-like elements partially eliminated from the somatic genome of Ascaris lumbricoides. EMBO J 5:3353–3360
Arkhipova IR, Ilyin YV (1991) Properties of promoter regions of mdg1 Drosophila retrotransposon indicate that it belongs to a specific class of promoters. EMBO J 10:1169–1177
Arkhipova IR, Mazo AM, Cherkasova VA, Gorelova TV, Schuppe NG, Ilyin YV (1986) The steps of reverse transcription of Drosophila mobile dispersed genetic elements and U3-R-U5 structure of their LTRs. Cell 44:555–563
Britten RJ (1986) Rates of DNA sequence evolution differ between taxonomic groups. Science 231:1393–1398
Charlesworth B, Langley CH (1989) The population genetics of Drosophila transposable elements. Annu Rev Genet 23:251–287
DiNocera PP, Graciani F, Giovanni L (1986) Genomic and structural organization of Drosophila melanogaster G elements. Nucleic Acids Res 14:675–691
Kimura M (1987) Molecular evolution clock and neutral theory. J Mol Evol 26:24–31
Lachaise D, Carion ML, David JR, Lemeunier F, Tsacas L, Ashburner M (1988) Historical biogeography of the Drosophila melanogaster species subgroup. Evol Biol 22:159–225
Lansmann RA, Shade RO, Grigliatti TA, Brock HW (1987) Evolution of P transposable elements: sequences of Drosophila nebulosa P elements. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 84:6491–6495
Li W-H, Gojobori T, Nei M (1981) Pseudogenes as a paradigm of neutral evolution. Nature 292:237–239
Miyata T, Yasunaga T (1981) Rapidly evolving mouse alphaglobin-related pseudogene and its evolutionary history. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 78:450–453
Pasyukova EG, Belyaeva ESp, Kogan GL, Gvozdev VA (1984) Transpositions of mobile dispersed genes (MDG) coupled with fitness changes in D. melanogaster. Genetika (Russ) 20:1772–1283
Sambrook J, Fritsch EF, Maniatis T (1989) Molecular cloning: a laboratory manual. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, New York
Sharp PM, Li W-H (1989) On the rate of DNA sequence evolution in Drosophila. J Mol Evol 28:398–402
Shevelyov YY (1992) Copies of a Stellate gene variant are located in the X heterochromatin of Drosophila melanogaster and are probably expressed. Genetics 132:1033–1037
Shevelyov YY, Balakireva MD, Gvozdev VA (1989) Heterochromatic regions in different Drosophila melanogaster stocks contain similar arrangements of moderate repeats with inserted copia-like elements (MDG1). Chromosoma 98:117–122
Vaury C, Bucheton A, Pelisson A (1989) The beta-heterochromatic sequences flanking the I elements are themselves defective transposable elements. Chromosoma 98:215–224
Werman SD, Davidson EH, Britten RJ (1990) Rapid evolution in a fraction of the Drosophila nuclear genome. J Mol Evol 30:281–289
Young MW (1979) Middle repetitive DNA: A fluid component of the Drosophila genome. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 76:6274–6278
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by D.J. Finnegan
The nucleotide sequence data reported in this paper will appear in the EMBL, GenBank and DDBJ Nucleotide Sequence Databases under the accession numbers X70361 and X70362
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shevelyov, Y.Y. Aurora, a non-mobile retrotransposon in Drosophila melanogaster heterochromatin. Molec. Gen. Genet. 239, 205–208 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00281619
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00281619