THE HERMES ELEMENT FROM MUSCA-DOMESTICA CAN TRANSPOSE IN 4 FAMILIES OF CYCLORRHAPHAN FLIES

Transgenic insect technology will provide opportunities to explore the basic biology of a broad range of insect species in ways that will pr ove insightful and important. It is also a technology that will provid e opportunities to manipulate the genotypes of insects of practical si gnificance to the health and welfare of humans. The Hermes transposabl e element from the housefly, Musca domestica, is a short inverted repe at-type element related to hobo from Drosophila melanogaster, Ac from Zea mays, and Tam3 from Antirrhinum majus. It has potential to become a versatile and efficient broad host-range insect transformation vecto r. The ability of Hermes to transpose when introduced into five specie s of diptera from four divergent families was tested using an in vivo, interplasmid transpositional recombination assay. Hermes was capable of transposing in all species tested, demonstrating that Hermes has a broad host-range. In addition, the rates of transposition were suffici ently high in all species tested to suggest that Hermes will be an eff icient gene transfer vector in a wide range of insect species. The Her mes element also revealed a pattern of integration into the target sub strate that permitted factors determining integration site selection t o be identified. Primary nucleotide sequence of the integration site p layed a role as did proximity to preferred integration sites and the n ucleosomal organization of the target.