PMID: 11914129Mar 27, 2002Paper

Evidence for the adaptive significance of an LTR retrotransposon sequence in a Drosophila heterochromatic gene

BMC Evolutionary Biology
Andrea M McCollumJohn F McDonald

Abstract

The potential adaptive significance of transposable elements (TEs) to the host genomes in which they reside is a topic that has been hotly debated by molecular evolutionists for more than two decades. Recent genomic analyses have demonstrated that TE fragments are associated with functional genes in plants and animals. These findings suggest that TEs may contribute significantly to gene evolution. We have analyzed two transposable elements associated with genes in the sequenced Drosophila melanogaster y; cn bw sp strain. A fragment of the Antonia long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposon is present in the intron of Chitinase 3 (Cht3), a gene located within the constitutive heterochromatin of chromosome 2L. Within the euchromatin of chromosome 2R a full-length Burdock LTR retrotransposon is located immediately 3' to cathD, a gene encoding cathepsin D. We tested for the presence of these two TE/gene associations in strains representing 12 geographically diverse populations of D. melanogaster. While the cathD insertion variant was detected only in the sequenced y; cn bw sp strain, the insertion variant present in the heterochromatic Cht3 gene was found to be fixed throughout twelve D. melanogaster populations and in a D. mauritia...Continue Reading

Citations

Dec 22, 2004·BioEssays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology·Patrizio DimitriFiammetta Vernì
Oct 24, 2008·PLoS Biology·Josefa GonzálezDmitri A Petrov
Mar 19, 2011·Biology Direct·Aurélie Hua-VanPierre Capy
Aug 12, 2005·Cytogenetic and Genome Research·P MedstrandD L Mager
Jan 10, 2003·Molecular Biology and Evolution·Daniel N LermanMartin E Feder
Oct 13, 2006·PLoS Genetics·Jean-Claude WalserMartin E Feder
Jan 13, 2006·Journal of Molecular Evolution·Eric W GankoJohn F McDonald
Jan 18, 2008·Molecular Biology and Evolution·J Michael MacphersonDmitri A Petrov
Aug 12, 2005·Cytogenetic and Genome Research·P DimitriF Vernì
Jun 27, 2009·Gene·Josefa González, Dmitri A Petrov

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