DNA ORGANIZATION AND LENGTH POLYMORPHISM AT THE 2L TELOMERIC REGION OF ANOPHELES-GAMBIAE

The molecular structure of the telomeric region at the left arm of the second chromosome of the mosquito Anopheles gambiae has been determin ed in the transformed strain G418 dagger that contains a pUChsneo tran sgene attached at the 2L chromosome end, and ire the Pink eye laborato ry strain (PE). Both strains contain the same complex satellite positi oned distal to a unique region, FIGE mapping of the telomeric region o f the PE strain revealed distinct DNA fragment lengths that segregated with individual chromosomes, Genomic DNA fragments were cloned from t he 2L telomeric region, which accounted for about half of 2L chromosom es in the PE population, In all three cases studied, long fragments of different middle repetitive sequences were found attached to the dist al ends of the 2L satellite, We propose that random fragments of DNA m ay be occasionally added during recombination between complex satellit e repeats at the chromosome ends.