Evolution of P elements in natural populations of Drosophila willistoni and D. sturtevanti.

ABSTRACT: To determine how population structure of the host species affects the spread of transposable elements and to assess the strength of selection acting on different structural regions, we sequenced P elements from strains of Drosophila willistoni and Drosophila sturtevanti sampled from across the distributions of these species. Elements from D. sturtevanti exhibited considerable sequence variation, and similarity among them was correlated to geographic distance between collection sites. By contrast, all D. willistoni elements sampled were essentially identical (pi < 0.2%) and exhibited patterns typical of a recent population expansion. While the canonical P elements sampled from D. sturtevanti appear to be long-time residents in that species, a rapid expansion of a very young canonical P-elem

SUBMITTER: Silva JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1448778 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature