hosimary: a new hAT transposon group involved in horizontal transfer

A PCR screening approach was used to search for sequences homologous to a previously described hAT transposon found in Drosophila simulans and Drosophila sechellia, named here as hosimary. In this study, 52 Drosophilidae species were analyzed and these sequences seem to be restricted to some species of the melanogaster group and Zaprionus indianus. These species present variable number of copies and most of those appear to be putatively encoding. The high hosimary sequences similarity among different species and the patchy distribution presented by this transposon strongly support the hypothesis that hosimary was horizontally transferred between the melanogaster group species and Z. indianus.