Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Genomics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Calvin University

Evolution of heterochromatin

Articles 1 - 1 of 1

Full-Text Articles in Genomics

Drosophila Muller F Elements Maintain A Distinct Set Of Genomic Properties Over 40 Million Years Of Evolution, Wilson Leung, Christopher D. Shaffer, Laura K. Reed, Sheryl T. Smith, Randall J. Dejong, Arlene J. Hoogewerf Jan 2015

Drosophila Muller F Elements Maintain A Distinct Set Of Genomic Properties Over 40 Million Years Of Evolution, Wilson Leung, Christopher D. Shaffer, Laura K. Reed, Sheryl T. Smith, Randall J. Dejong, Arlene J. Hoogewerf

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

The Muller F element (4.2 Mb, ~80 protein-coding genes) is an unusual autosome of Drosophila melanogaster; it is mostly heterochromatic with a low recombination rate. To investigate how these properties impact the evolution of repeats and genes, we manually improved the sequence and annotated the genes on the D. erecta, D. mojavensis, and D. grimshawi F elements and euchromatic domains from the Muller D element. We find that F elements have greater transposon density (25-50%) than euchromatic reference regions (3-11%). Among the F elements, D. grimshawi has the lowest transposon density (particularly DINE-1: 2% vs. 11-27%). F element genes have …