The composition of piRNA clusters in Drosophila melanogaster deviates from expectations under the trap model.

ABSTRACT:

Background

It is widely assumed that the invasion of a transposable element (TE) in mammals and invertebrates is stopped when a copy of the TE jumps into a piRNA cluster (i.e., the trap model). However, recent works, which for example showed that deletion of three major piRNA clusters has no effect on TE activity, cast doubt on the trap model.

Results

Here, we test the trap model from a population genetics perspective. Our simulations show that the composition of regions that act as transposon traps (i.e., potentially piRNA clusters) ought to deviate from regions that have no effect on TE activity. We investigated TEs in five Drosophila melanogaster strains using three complementary approaches to test whether the composition of piRNA clusters matches these expectations. We f

SUBMITTER: Wierzbicki F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10588112 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature