Molecular organization of heterochromatin in malaria mosquitoes of the Anopheles maculipennis subgroup |
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Authors: | Olga G Grushko Maria V Sharakhova Vladimir N Stegnii Igor V Sharakhov |
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Institution: | 1. Research Institute of Biology and Biophysics, Tomsk State University, Lenin prospect 36, Tomsk, Russia;2. Life Sciences Institute, University of Michigan, 210 Washtenaw Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2216, USA;3. Department of Entomology, 203 Fralin Life Science Institute, West Campus Drive, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA |
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Abstract: | Although heterochromatin makes up a significant portion of the malaria mosquito genome, its organization, function, and evolution are poorly understood. Sibling species of the Anopheles maculipennis subgroup, the European malaria mosquitoes, are characterized by striking differences in the morphology of pericentric heterochromatin; however, the molecular basis for the rapid evolutionary transformation of heterochromatin is not known. This study reports an initial survey of the molecular organization of the pericentric heterochromatin in nonmodel species from the A. maculipennis subgroup. Molecular identity and chromosomal localization were established for short DNA fragments obtained by microdissection from the pericentric diffuse β-heterochromatin of A. atroparvus. Among 102 sequenced clones of the Atr2R library, twenty had sequence similarity to transposable elements (TEs) from the Anopheles gambiae and Aedes aegypti genomes. At least six protein-coding single-copy genes from A. gambiae and four single-copy genes from Drosophila melanogaster were homologous to eight clones from the library. Most of these conserved genes were heterochromatic in A. gambiae but euchromatic in D. melanogaster. The remaining 74 clones were characterized as noncoding repetitive DNA. Comparative chromosome mapping of twelve clones in the sibling species A. atroparvus and A. messeae demonstrated that the noncoding repetitive sequences and the TEs have undergone independent chromosome-specific and species-specific gains and losses in the morphologically different pericentric heterochromatic regions, in accordance with the “library model.” |
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Keywords: | TEs transposable elements Atr2R the library of DNA fragments from the pericentric β-heterochromatin of the 2R arm of A atroparvus DOP-PCR degenerated oligonucleotide primed PCR FISH fluorescent in situ hybridization GIRI Genetic Information Research Institute LTR long terminal repeat EST expressed sequence tag |
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