Genetics. Published Articles Ahead of Print: December 30, 2005, Copyright © 2005
doi:10.1534/genetics.105.052803


A more recent version of this article appeared on April 1, 2006.

REGULAR RESEARCH PAPERS

Transposition of regulatory elements by P element-mediated rearrangements in Drosophila melanogaster

Ekaterina Pomerantseva 1, Inna Biryukova 2, Rita Silicheva 1, Ekaterina Savitskaya 1, Anton Golovnin 1 and Pavel Georgiev 1*

1 Institute of Gene Biology
2 Institute de Genetique et de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: georgiev_p{at}mail.ru.

Submitted on October 26, 2005
Revised on December 8, 2005
Accepted on 22 December 2005


Abstract

Previously we described highly unstable mutations in the yellow locus, induced by the chimeric element and consisting of sequences from distally located 1A unique genomic region, flanked by identical copies of an internally deleted 1.2 kb P element. Here we show that a sequence, which is part of the yellow 1A region can be transmitted to the AS-C by successive inversion and re-inversion generated by yellow and AS-C located P elements. The chimeric element contains a regulatory element from the 1A region that specifically blocks yellow wing and body enhancers and simultaneously stimulates yellow expression in bristles. These results suggest that P element generated chimeric elements may play a certain role in rapid changes of regulatory regions of genes during evolution.

Key Words: Drosophila, P element, chimeric element, insulator, yellow