Recent horizontal transfer of a mariner transposable element among and between Diptera and Neuroptera |
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Authors: | Robertson HM; Lampe DJ |
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Institution: | Department of Entomology, University of Illinois, Urbana 61801, USA. |
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Abstract: | Transposable elements of the mariner family are widespread among insects
and other invertebrates, and initial analyses of their relationships
indicated frequent occurrence of horizontal transfers between hosts. A
specific PCR assay was used to screen for additional members of the
irritans subfamily of mariners in more than 400 arthropod species.
Phylogenetic analysis of cloned PCR fragments indicated that relatively
recent horizontal transfers had occurred into the lineages of a fruit fly
Drosophila ananassae, the horn fly Haematobia irritans, the African malaria
vector mosquito Anopheles gambiae, and a green lacewing Chrysoperla
plorabunda. Genomic dot-blot analysis revealed that the copy number in
these species varies widely, from about 17,000 copies in the horn fly to
three copies in D. ananassae. Multiple copies were sequenced from genomic
clones from each of these species and four others with related elements.
These sequences confirmed the PCR results, revealing extremely similar
elements in each of these four species (greater than 88% DNA and 95% amino
acid identity). In particular, the consensus sequence of the transposase
gene of the horn fly elements differs by just two base pairs out of 1,044
from that of the lacewing elements. The mosquito lineage has diverged from
the other Diptera for over 200 Myr, and the neuropteran last shared a
common ancestor with them more than 265 Myr ago, so this high similarity
implies that these transposons recently transferred horizontally into each
lineage. Their presence in only the closest relatives in at least the
lacewing lineage supports this hypothesis. Such horizontal transfers
provide an explanation for the evolutionary persistence and widespread
distribution of mariner transposons. We propose that the ability to
transfer horizontally to new hosts before extinction by mutation in the
current host constitutes the primary selective constraint maintaining the
sequence conservation of mariners and perhaps other DNA-mediated elements.
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