Used in an investigation to address the relationship between retrotransposons and retroviruses and the coadaptation of these retroelements to their host genomes. Results indicate retrotransposons are heterogeneous in contrast to retroviruses, suggesting different modes of evolution by slippage-like mechanisms.
In addition to a full-length transcript, micropia encodes an antisense RNA that is complementary to the reverse transcriptase and RNase H coding region. The antisense transcript accumulates only in males during spermatogenesis and is expressed from a promoter that shows identity to that of other Drosophila genes transcribed specifically in the testes. Both sense and antisense RNAs are present in the cytoplasm of primary spermatocytes.
Two Dhyd\micropia elements have been cloned and sequenced, and compared with two D.melanogastermicropia elements. A 10bp region within each repeat unit of the 3' tandem repeats is highly conserved, suggesting functional importance either in transposition events, or in regulatory activity on flanking DNA sequences.
Used in an investigation to address the relationship between retrotransposons and retroviruses and the coadaptation of these retroelements to their host genomes. Results indicate retrotransposons are heterogeneous in contrast to retroviruses, suggesting different modes of evolution by slippage-like mechanisms.
In addition to a full-length transcript, micropia encodes an antisense RNA that is complementary to the reverse transcriptase and RNase H coding region. The antisense transcript accumulates only in males during spermatogenesis and is expressed from a promoter that shows identity to that of other Drosophila genes transcribed specifically in the testes. Both sense and antisense RNAs are present in the cytoplasm of primary spermatocytes.
Two Dhyd\micropia elements have been cloned and sequenced, and compared with two D.melanogaster micropia elements. A 10bp region within each repeat unit of the 3' tandem repeats is highly conserved, suggesting functional importance either in transposition events, or in regulatory activity on flanking DNA sequences.