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The transposable element mariner can excise in non-drosophilid insects

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Abstract

Plasmid-based excision assays performed in embryos of two non-drosophilid species using the mariner transposable element from Drosophila mauritiana resulted in empty excision sites identical to those observed after the excision of mariner from D. mauritiana chromosomes. In the presence of the autonomous mariner element Mos1, excision products were recovered from D. melanogaster, D. mauritiana and the blowfly Lucilia cuprina. When a hsp82 heat shock promoter-Mos1 construct was used to supply mariner transposase, excision products were also recovered from the Queensland fruitfly Bactrocera tryoni. Analysis of DNA sequences at empty excision sites led us to hypothesise that the mariner excision/repair process involves the formation of a heteroduplex at the excision breakpoint. The success of these assays suggests that they will provide a valuable tool for assessing the ability of mariner and mariner-like elements to function in non-drosophilid insects and for investigating the basic mechanisms of mariner excision and repair.

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Author notes

  1. Craig J. Coates

    Present address: Division of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Australian National University, GPO Box 4, 0200, Acton, ACT, Australia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Entomology, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, GPO Box 1700, 2601, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Craig J. Coates & Peter W. Atkinson

  2. School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, 2006, NSW, Australia

    Catherine L. Turney & Marianne Frommer

  3. Center for Agricultural Biotechnology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, 20742, College Park, MD, USA

    David A. O'Brochta

  4. Center for the Application of Molecular Biology to International Agriculture, GPO Box 3200, 2601, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    W. D. Warren

Authors
  1. Craig J. Coates
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  2. Catherine L. Turney
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  3. Marianne Frommer
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  4. David A. O'Brochta
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  5. W. D. Warren
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  6. Peter W. Atkinson
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Communicated by D. J. Finnegan

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Coates, C.J., Turney, C.L., Frommer, M. et al. The transposable element mariner can excise in non-drosophilid insects. Molec. Gen. Genet. 249, 246–252 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00290372

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00290372

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