Errantiviruses of Drosophila

The view on Drosophila long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons, which have three reading frames, as endogenous retroviruses or errantiviruses (ERVs, according to the latest ICTV nomenclature) is discussed. Data on the biology of ERVs and the mechanisms of their involvement in genetic instability of Drosophila are considered.     

Divergence of the Regulation of alpha-Amylase Activity in Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila funebris, and Drosophila saltans

The regulation of amylase activity in threeDrosophila species, D. melanogaster,D. funebris and D. saltans, wasanalyzed by measuring the specific activity levels infour dietary environments, cornmeal, glucose, 5% starch, and 10% starch, at threedevelopmental stages, i.e., the third-instar larval,pupal, and 2-day-old adult stages. The developmentalprofiles of amylase activity for the threeDrosophila species showed that the level of activity washigh at the larval and adult stages but substantiallylow at the pupal stage, suggesting thatDrosophila does not utilize starch at the pupalstage. Divergence in the regulation of amylase was observed amongthe three Drosophila species on the followingpoints. (1) The order of amylase specific activity wasD. melanogaster > D. funebris >D. saltans. (2) The response pattern to the dietary environment varied amongthe species and changed during development. (3) Thetiming of the switch in the response pattern to thedietary environment during development was before pupation in D. funebris and D.saltans but after pupation in D.melanogaster. The significance of the divergence inthe regulation of amylase activity for adaptation to astarch environment in Drosophila is discussed.     

Errantiviruses of Drosophila

The view on Drosophila long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons, which have three reading frames, as endogenous retroviruses or errantiviruses (ERVs, according to the latest ICTV nomenclature) is discussed. Data on the biology of ERVs and the mechanisms of their involvement in genetic instability of Drosophila are considered.     

Preadult competition between Drosophila subobscura and Drosophila pseudoobscura

The Palaearctic species Drosophila subobscura has recently colonized a large area of North America where it coexists with Drosophila pseudoobscura. The viability and developmental rate of these species were studied at 13 d?C, 18d?C and 23 d?C and at densities of 10, 50, 100 and 200 eggs per vial. The two species were differently affected by density and temperature in the ranges studied. Both intra- and interspecific cultures showed that D. pseudoobscura was best adapted to 23 d?C, where it was clearly the dominant species. On the other hand, at 18 d?C and especially at 13 d?C, although D. subobscura was less viable than D. pseudoobscura, its developmental time was shorter, which may give advantage to this species. Results reported here agree with the observed distribution of these species in North America.     

Microsatellite variation in populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura and Drosophila persimilis

We have isolated, characterized and mapped 33 dinucleotide, three trinucleotide and one tetranucleotide repeat loci from the four major chromosomes of Drosophila pseudoobscura. Average inferred repeat unit length of the dinucleotide repeats is 12 repeat units, similar to D. melanogaster. Assays of D. pseudoobscura and populations of its sibling species, D. persimilis, using 10 of these loci show extremely high levels of variation compared with similar studies of dinucleotide repeat variation in D. melanogaster populations. The high levels of variation are consistent with an average mutation rate of approximately 10(-6) per locus per generation and an effective population size of D. pseudoobscura approximately four times larger than that of D. melanogaster. Consistent with allozymes and nucleotide sequence polymorphism, the dinucleotide repeat loci reveal minimal structure across four populations of D. pseudoobscura. Finally, our preliminary recombinational mapping of 24 of these microsatellites suggests that the total recombinational genome size may be larger than previously inferred using morphological mutant markers.     

New Drosophila P-like elements and reclassification of Drosophila P-elements subfamilies

Genomic searches for P-like transposable elements were performed (1) in silico in the 12 available Drosophila genomes and (2) by PCR using degenerate primers in 21 Neotropical Drosophila species. In silico searches revealed P-like sequences only in Drosophila persimilis and Drosophila willistoni. Sixteen new P-like elements were obtained by PCR. These sequences were added to sequences of previously described P-like elements, and a phylogenetic analysis was performed. The subfamilies of P-elements described in the literature (Canonical, M, O, T, and K) were included in the reconstructed tree, and all were monophyletic. However, we suggest that some subfamilies can be enlarged, other subdivided, and some new subfamilies may be proposed, totalizing eleven subfamilies, most of which contain new P-like sequences. Our analyses support the monophyly of P-like elements in Drosophilidae. We suggest that, once these elements need host-specific factors to be mobilizable, the horizontal transfer (HT) of P-like elements may be inhibited among more distant taxa. Nevertheless, HT among Drosophilidae species appears to be a common phenomenon.