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

ABSTRACT:

Background

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.

Results

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-le

SUBMITTER: McCollum AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC102766 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature