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Local enrichment with homopolymeric (dA/dT) DNA in genomes of some lower dipterans and Drosophila melanogaster

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Abstract

An investigation into the chromosomal localization of homopolymeric dA/dT was carried out with species of the genera Rhynchosciara, Chironomus , Drosophila and several other taxa. In situ hybridisation probing mitotic and polytene chromosomes with RNA homopolymers was performed, followed by immunological detection of the DNA/RNA hybrid. Use of this method allowed us to assess specific regions of some dipteran genomes, where the signal was generally, but not always, located in heterochromatic regions. Human and Drosophila chromosome regions known to contain dA/dT runs of up to 153 bp were devoid of consistent labelling. The stability of the rA/dT hybrid formed in situ was in agreement with the Tm for long rA/dT hybrid complexes, suggesting that the method used in this work is able to identify unusually long homopolymeric dA/dT tracts.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. B.D. Stollar for providing us with anti-hybrid antibody. This work was supported by FAPESP.

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  1. Departamento de Biologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão 277, Cidade Universitária, São Paulo, SP, Brazil CEP 05508-900

    Ann Jacob Stocker & Eduardo Gorab

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  1. Ann Jacob Stocker
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  2. Eduardo Gorab
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Correspondence to Eduardo Gorab.

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Edited by: E.R. Schmidt

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Stocker, A.J., Gorab, E. Local enrichment with homopolymeric (dA/dT) DNA in genomes of some lower dipterans and Drosophila melanogaster . Chromosoma 111, 455–460 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00412-003-0230-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00412-003-0230-z

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