hobotransposable elements inDrosophila melanogasterandD. simulans

Abstract

Summary: Genomic patterns of occurrence of the transposable elementhoboare polymorphic in the sibling speciesDrosophila melanogasterandD. simulans. Most tested strains of both species have apparently complete (3·0 kb) and smallerhoboelements (H lines), but in both species some strains completely lack such canonicalhoboelements (E lines). The occurrence of H and E lines inD. simulansas well as inD. melanogasterimplies that an hypothesis of recent introduction in the latter species is inadequate to explain the phylogenetic occurrence ofhobo. Particular internally deleted elements, the approximately 1·5 kbTh1andTh2elements, are abundant in many lines ofD. melanogaster, and an analogous 1·1 kb internally deleted element,h del sim, is abundant in most lines ofD. simulans. Besides the canonicalhobosequences, both species (and their sibling speciesD. sechelliaandD. mauritiana) have manyhobo-hybridizing sequences per genome that do not appear to be closely related to the canonicalhobosequence.