PEGASUS, A SMALL TERMINAL INVERTED REPEAT TRANSPOSABLE ELEMENT FOUND IN THE WHITE GENE OF ANOPHELES-GAMBIAE

Citation
Nj. Besansky et al., PEGASUS, A SMALL TERMINAL INVERTED REPEAT TRANSPOSABLE ELEMENT FOUND IN THE WHITE GENE OF ANOPHELES-GAMBIAE, Genetica, 98(2), 1996, pp. 119-129
Citations number
34
Categorie Soggetti
Genetics & Heredity
Journal title
ISSN journal
00166707
Volume
98
Issue
2
Year of publication
1996
Pages
119 - 129
Database
ISI
SICI code
0016-6707(1996)98:2<119:PASTIR>2.0.ZU;2-A
Abstract
Pegasus, a novel transposable element, was discovered as a length poly morphism in the white gene of Anopheles gambiae. Sequence analysis rev ealed that this 535 bp element was flanked by 8 bp target site duplica tions and 8 bp perfect terminal inverted repeats similar to those foun d in many members of the Tc1 family. Its small size and lack of long o pen reading frames preclude protein coding capacity. Southern analysis and in situ hybridization to polytene chromosomes demonstrated that P egasus occurs in approximately 30 copies in the genomes of An. gambiae and its sibling species and is homogenous in structure but polymorphi c in chromosomal location. Characterization of five additional element s by sequencing revealed nucleotide identities of 95% to 99%. Of 30 Pe gasus-containing phage crones examined by PCR, only one contained an e lement exceeding 535 bp in length, due to the insertion of another tra nsposable element-like sequence. Thus, the majority, if not all, extan t Pegasus elements may be defective copies of a complete element whose contemporary existence in An. gambiae is uncertain. No Pegasus-hybrid izing sequences were detected in nine other anophelines and three culi cines examined, suggesting a very limited taxonomic distribution.