Heat-shock promoters: targets for evolution by P transposable elements in Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: Transposable elements are potent agents of genomic change during evolution, but require access to chromatin for insertion-and not all genes provide equivalent access. To test whether the regulatory features of heat-shock genes render their proximal promoters especially susceptible to the insertion of transposable elements in nature, we conducted an unbiased screen of the proximal promoters of 18 heat-shock genes in 48 natural populations of Drosophila. More than 200 distinctive transposable elements had inserted into these promoters; greater than 96% are P elements. By contrast, few or no P element insertions segregate in natural populations in a "negative control" set of proximal promoters lacking the distinctive regulatory features of heat-shock genes. P element transpositions into these

SUBMITTER: Walser JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1592238 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature