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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to W Pinsker.
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In Drosophila guanche, P-homologous sequences were found to be located in a tandem repetitive array (copy number: 20-50) at a single genomic site. The cytological position on the polytene chromosomes was determined by in situ hybridization (chromosome O: 85C). Sequencing of one complete repeat unit (3.25 kilobases) revealed high sequence similarity between the central coding region comprising exons 0 to 2 and the corresponding section of the Drosophila melanogaster P element. The rest of the sequence has diverged considerably. Exon 3 has no coding function and the inverted repeats have disappeared. The P homologues of D. guanche apparently have lost their mobility but have retained the coding capacity for a protein similar to the 66-kDa P-element repressor of D. melanogaster. Divergence between different repeat units indicates early amplification of the sequence at this particular genomic site. The presence of a common P-element site at 85C in Drosophila subobscura, Drosophila madeirensis, and D. guanche suggests that clustering of the sequence at this location took place before the phylogenetic radiation of the three species.
A full-size P-element (IbifM3) was isolated from a genomic library of Drosophila bifasciata. The sequence has a length of 2935 bp and is flanked by 8 bp duplications of the target site. The termini are formed by 31 bp inverted repeats. The four exons have intact reading frames and possess the coding capacity for a protein of 753 amino acids and a molecular weight of 86.4 kd. The sections of the D. melanogaster transposase presumed to be functionally important (three leucine zippers and a helix turn helix motif) are conserved in the D. bifasciata P-element. Copy number and genomic distribution resemble the situation in true P-strains of D. melanogaster. Both findings support the idea that IbifM3 represents an active transposon. The sequence comparison between the P-elements of D. bifasciata, D. melanogaster and Scaptomyza pallida reveals relationships not in accordance with the phylogeny of the species. This result suggests a further case of horizontal transmission involving mobile elements in the genus Drosophila.
Two P-elements (bif1 and bif2) were isolated from a genomic library of Drosophila bifasciata. Both elements are internally deleted and have lost the coding capacity for a functional transposase. One of the elements (bif2) contains an insert consisting of a repetitive sequence. The terminal inverted repeats and the segments necessary for passive mobility are well conserved. Element bif2 has retained rudiments of the coding sequence of exon 0 and exon 3, but the reading frame is destroyed by insertions and deletions. The comparison of the D. bifasciata P-elements with P-elements of Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila nebulosa reveals that the two latter sequences are more similar to each other than either of them is to the D. bifasciata elements. This finding contradicts the phylogenetic relationship of the species and can be taken as an indirect but unequivocal evidence for recent horizontal gene transfer from a relative of D. nebulosa to the gene pool of D. melanogaster. The P-elements of D. bifasciata are phylogenetically ancient and have evolved independently for about 50 million years. A higher substitution rate at the third codon position as well as a predominance of conservative replacements at the amino acid level indicates that the P-elements of D. bifasciata have been under selective constraint over a long period and that immunobilization has occurred only recently.
Enzyme loci, visible marker genes and lambda-cloned DNA-sequences from a D. miranda library were mapped cytologically on the chromosome elements C and E of D. pseudoobscura and D. subobscura. New data are incorporated into the linkage maps of the two species. Homologous segments can now be localized in the polytene chromosomes with these markers. A comparison of the chromosome elements E of D. melanogaster and D. subobscura shows 12 conserved subsections which have been rearranged by paracentric inversions in the evolution of the two lineages.
X-Ray induced translocations between autosomes and the Y-chromosome giving balanced and aneuploid (partially trisomic) male offspring proved useful for a rather precise localization of enzyme loci in the subsections of the polytene chromosomes of Drosophila subobscura.
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