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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 same genes during laboratory mutagenesis recapitulate these findings. The natural P element insertions cluster in specific sites in the promoters, with up to eight populations exhibiting P element insertions at the same position; laboratory insertions are into similar sites. By contrast, a "positive control" set of promoters resembling heat-shock promoters in regulatory features harbors few P element insertions in nature, but many insertions after experimental transposition in the laboratory. We conclude that the distinctive regulatory features that typify heat-shock genes (in Drosophila) are especially prone to mutagenesis via P elements in nature. Thus in nature, P elements create significant and distinctive variation in heat-shock genes, upon which evolutionary processes may act.
Pubmed ID: 17029562 RIS Download
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Tool used to design PCR primers from DNA sequence - often in high-throughput genomics applications. It does everything from mispriming libraries to sequence quality data to the generation of internal oligos.
View all literature mentionsDatabase of Drosophila genetic and genomic information with information about stock collections and fly genetic tools. Gene Ontology (GO) terms are used to describe three attributes of wild-type gene products: their molecular function, the biological processes in which they play a role, and their subcellular location. Additionally, FlyBase accepts data submissions. FlyBase can be searched for genes, alleles, aberrations and other genetic objects, phenotypes, sequences, stocks, images and movies, controlled terms, and Drosophila researchers using the tools available from the "Tools" drop-down menu in the Navigation bar.
View all literature mentionsGIRI is a private, non-profit research institution founded in 1994. Our mission is to understand biological processes which alter the genetic makeup of different organisms, as a basis for potential gene therapy and genome engineering techniques. We pursue and promote original peer-reviewed, public domain research on genetic information (DNA sequence data), as well as dissemination of databases and computer software related to this research. Our research is heavily based on computer power and human skills different from those applied in classical molecular biology and genetics.
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