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DNA underreplication in intercalary heterochromatin regions in polytene chromosomes of Drosophila melanogaster correlates with the formation of partial chromosomal aberrations and ectopic pairing

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Abstract

We studied the influence of the Suppressor of Underreplication (SuUR) gene expression on the intercalary heterochromatin (IH) regions of Drosophila melanogaster polytene chromosomes. We observed a strong positive correlation between increased SuUR expression, underreplication extent, amount of DNA truncation, and formation of ectopic contacts in IH regions. SuUR overexpression from heat shock-driven transgene results in the formation of partial chromosomal aberrations whose breakpoints map exclusively to the regions of intercalary and pericentric heterochromatin. It is important to note that all these effects are seen only if SuUR overexpression is induced during early stages of chromosome polytenization. Therefore, we developed the idea that ectopic pairing results from the joining of free DNA ends, which are formed as a consequence of underreplication.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Dr. E. Baumgartner for DNA clone supplied and A. Gorchakov, E. Volkova, E. Andreeva, and E. Larschan for stimulating discussions. This work was supported by grants from the Program for Molecular and Cellular Biology 10.1, N 70/2004 and Program for Scientific Schools 918.2003.

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  1. Artyom A. Alekseyenko

    Present address: Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

    Elena S. Belyaeva, Sergey A. Demakov, Galina V. Pokholkova, Artyom A. Alekseyenko, Tatiana D. Kolesnikova & Igor F. Zhimulev

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  1. Elena S. Belyaeva
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  2. Sergey A. Demakov
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  3. Galina V. Pokholkova
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  4. Artyom A. Alekseyenko
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  5. Tatiana D. Kolesnikova
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  6. Igor F. Zhimulev
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Correspondence to Igor F. Zhimulev.

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Communicated by S. Pimpinelli

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Belyaeva, E.S., Demakov, S.A., Pokholkova, G.V. et al. DNA underreplication in intercalary heterochromatin regions in polytene chromosomes of Drosophila melanogaster correlates with the formation of partial chromosomal aberrations and ectopic pairing. Chromosoma 115, 355–366 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00412-006-0063-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00412-006-0063-7

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