Originally published as Genetics Published Articles Ahead of Print on April 2, 2006.

Genetics, Vol. 173, 809-820, June 2006, Copyright © 2006
doi:10.1534/genetics.105.053959

Remarkable Site Specificity of Local Transposition Into the Hsp70 Promoter of Drosophila melanogaster

Victoria Y. Shilova^*, David G. Garbuz^*, Elena N. Myasyankina^*, Bing Chen, Michael B. Evgen'ev^*,, Martin E. Feder^,,1 and Olga G. Zatsepina^*

^* Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117984 Moscow, Russia, Institute of Cell Biophysics, 142290 Puschino, Russia, Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy and The Committees on Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, and Molecular Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637

¹ Corresponding author: Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, 1027 E. 57th St., Chicago, IL 60637.
E-mail: m-feder{at}uchicago.edu

Heat-shock genes have numerous features that ought to predispose them to insertional mutagenesis via transposition. To elucidate the evolvability of heat-shock genes via transposition, we have exploited a local transposition technique and Drosophila melanogaster strains with EPgy2 insertions near the Hsp70 gene cluster at 87A7 to produce numerous novel EPgy2 insertions into these Hsp70 genes. More than 50% of 45 independent insertions were made into two adjacent nucleotides in the proximal promoter at positions –96 and –97, and no insertions were into a coding or 3'-flanking sequence. All inserted transposons were in inverse orientation to the starting transposon. The frequent insertion into nucleotides –96 and –97 is consistent with the DNase hypersensitivity, absence of nucleosomes, flanking GAGA-factor-binding sites, and nucleotide sequence of this region. These experimental insertions recapitulated many of the phenotypes of natural transposition into Hsp70: reduced mRNA expression, less Hsp70 protein, and decreased inducible thermotolerance. The results suggest that the distinctive features of heat-shock promoters, which underlie the massive and rapid expression of heat-shock genes upon heat shock, also are a source of evolutionary variation on which natural selection can act.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. Sudi, S. Zhang, G. Intrieri, X. Hao, and P. Zhang Coincidence of P-Insertion Sites and Breakpoints of Deletions Induced by Activating P Elements in Drosophila Genetics, May 1, 2008; 179(1): 227 - 235. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

International Access Link

Online ISS 1091-6490
Copyright 2008 by the Genetics Society of America
phone: 412-268-1812   fax: 412-268-1813   email: genetics-gsa{at}andrew.cmu.edu