Transcription of gypsy elements in a Y-chromosome male fertility gene of Drosophila hydei
- Catholic Univ. of Nijmegen (Netherlands); and others
We have found that defective gypsy retrotransposons are a major constituent of the lampbrush loop pair Nooses in the short arm of Y chromosome of Drosophila hydei. The loop pair is formed by male fertility gene Q during the primary spermatocyte stage of spermatogenesis, each loop being a single transcription unit with an estimated length of 260 kb. Using fluorescent in situ hybridization, we show that throughout the loop transcripts gypsy elements are interspersed with blocks of a tandemly repetitive Y-specific DNA sequence, ayl. Nooses transcripts containing both sequence types show a wide size range on Northern blots, do not migrate to the cytoplasm, and are degraded just before the first meiotic division. Only one strand of ayl and only the coding strand of gypsy can be detected in the loop transcripts. However, as cloned genomic DNA fragments also display opposite orientations of ayl and gypsy, such DNA sections cannot be part of the Nooses. Hence, they are most likely derived from the flanking heterochromatin. The direction of transcription of ayl and gypsy thus appears to be of a functional significance. 76 refs., 5 figs.
- OSTI ID:
- 543044
- Journal Information:
- Genetics, Vol. 142, Issue 2; Other Information: PBD: Feb 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
BASIC STUDIES
DROSOPHILA
FERTILITY
SPERMATOGENESIS
GENETICS
GENES
DNA SEQUENCING
GENETIC MAPPING
TRANSCRIPTION
GENE REGULATION
STRUCTURE-ACTIVITY RELATIONSHIPS
GENE MUTATIONS
DNA-CLONING
Y CHROMOSOME
MEIOSIS
TRANSPOSONS
SPONTANEOUS MUTATIONS
HETEROCHROMATIN
IN-SITU HYBRIDIZATION
MALES
PROBES