Telomeric P elements Associated With Cytotype Regulation of the P Transposon Family in Drosophila melanogaster

Corresponding author: Michael J. Simmons, Cell Biology and Development, 140 Gortner Laboratory, 1479 Gortner Ave., University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108., simmo004{at}tc.umn.edu (E-mail)

Communicating editor: K. GOLIC

P elements inserted at the left end of the Drosophila X chromosome were isolated genetically from wild-type P strains. Stocks carrying these elements were tested for repression of P-strain-induced gonadal dysgenesis in females and for repression of transposase-catalyzed P-element excision in males and females. Both traits were repressed by stocks carrying either complete or incomplete P elements inserted near the telomere of the X chromosome in cytological region 1A, but not by stocks carrying only nontelomeric X-linked P elements. All three of the telomeric P elements that were analyzed at the molecular level were inserted in one of the 1.8-kb telomere-associated sequence (TAS) repeats near the end of the X chromosome. Stocks with these telomeric P elements strongly repressed P-element excision induced in the male germline by a P strain or by the transposase-producing transgenes H(hsp/CP)2, H(hsp/CP)3, a combination of these two transgenes, and P(ry⁺, 2-3)99B. For H(hsp/CP)2 and P(ry⁺, 2-3)99B, the repression was also effective when the flies were subjected to heat-shock treatments. However, these stocks did not repress the somatic transposase activity of P(ry⁺, 2-3)99B. Repression of transposase activity in the germline required maternal transmission of the telomeric P elements themselves. Paternal transmission of these elements, or maternal transmission of the cytoplasm from carriers, both were insufficient to repress transposase activity. Collectively, these findings indicate that the regulatory abilities of telomeric P elements are similar to those of the P cytotype.

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