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Molecular and Cellular Biology, October 2000, p. 7634-7642, Vol. 20, No. 20
0270-7306/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Attachment of HeT-A Sequences to Chromosomal Termini in Drosophila melanogaster May Occur by Different Mechanisms

Tatyana Kahn, Mikhail Savitsky, and Pavel Georgiev*

Department of Control of Genetic Processes, Institute of Gene Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117334 Moscow, Russia

Received 19 June 2000/Accepted 31 July 2000

Drosophila telomeres contain arrays of the retrotransposonlike elements HeT-A and TART. Their transposition to broken chromosomal termini has been implicated in chromosome healing and telomere elongation. The HeT-A element is attached by its 3' end, which contains the promoter. To monitor the behavior of HeT-A elements, we used the yellow gene with terminal deficiencies consisting of breaks in the yellow promoter region that result in the y-null phenotype. Attachment of the HeT-A element provides the promoterless yellow gene with a promoter that activates yellow expression in bristles. The frequency of HeT-A transpositions to the yellow terminal deficiency depends on the genotype of the line and varies from 2 × 10-3 to less than 2 × 10-5. Loss of the attached HeT-A due to incomplete replication at the telomere leads to inactivation of yellow expression, which is restored by attachment of a new HeT-A element upstream of yellow. New HeT-A additions occur at a frequency of about 1.2 × 10-3. Short DNA attachments are generated by gene conversion using the homologous telomeric sequences as templates. Longer DNA attachments are generated either by conventional transposition of an HeT-A element to the chromosomal terminus or by recombination between the 3' terminus of telomeric HeT-A elements and the receding end of HeT-A attached to the yellow gene.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute of Gene Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 34/5 Vavilov St., 117334 Moscow, Russia. Phone: 7-095-1359734. Fax: 7-095-1354105. E-mail: pgeorg&biogen.msk.su and gpg{at}mx.ibg.relarn.ru.

Molecular and Cellular Biology, October 2000, p. 7634-7642, Vol. 20, No. 20
0270-7306/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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