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Science 27 March 1987:
Vol. 235. no. 4796, pp. 1636 - 1638
DOI: 10.1126/science.3029874
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Articles

Science, Vol 235, Issue 4796, 1636-1638
Copyright © 1987 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Heritable somatic excision of a Drosophila transposon

GJ Bryan, JW Jacobson, and DL Hartl

A mutation in the white gene of Drosophila mauritiana that results from insertion of the transposable element mariner is genetically unstable in both germ cells and somatic cells. Somatic instability is indicated by the occurrence of animals having mosaic eyes with patches of pigmented cells on a peach-colored background. Normally uncommon, the frequency of mosaicism is so greatly enhanced in a particular mutant strain that virtually every animal in the strain is an eye-color mosaic. The molecular basis of the mosaicism is the excision of the mariner element from its location in the DNA of the white gene in somatic cells. The phenomenon results from a single dominant genetic factor located in chromosome 3. Genetic control over the excision of transposable elements may play a role in determining the persistence of transposable elements in the genome.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Vertebrate DNA Transposon as a Natural Mutator: The Medaka Fish Tol2 Element Contributes to Genetic Variation without Recognizable Traces.
A. Koga, A. Iida, H. Hori, A. Shimada, and A. Shima (2006)
Mol. Biol. Evol. 23, 1414-1419
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Gene vector and transposable element behavior in mosquitoes.
D. A. O'Brochta, N. Sethuraman, R. Wilson, R. H. Hice, A. C. Pinkerton, C. S. Levesque, D. K. Bideshi, N. Jasinskiene, C. J. Coates, A. A. James, et al. (2003)
J. Exp. Biol. 206, 3823-3834
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Efficient Mobilization of mariner in Vivo Requires Multiple Internal Sequences.
A. R. Lohe and D. L. Hartl (2002)
Genetics 160, 519-526
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Discovery of the Transposable Element Mariner.
D. L. Hartl (2001)
Genetics 157, 471-476
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Self-Inflicted Wounds, Template-Directed Gap Repair and a Recombination Hotspot: Effects of the mariner Transposase.
A. R. Lohe, C. Timmons, I. Beerman, E. R. Lozovskaya, and D. L. Hartl (2000)
Genetics 154, 647-656
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Transposition of the mariner element from Drosophila mauritiana in zebrafish.
J. M. Fadool, D. L. Hartl, and J. E. Dowling (1998)
PNAS 95, 5182-5186
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Position Effect Variegation and Genomic Instability.
A.C. Spradling (1993)
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 58, 585-596
   Abstract »    PDF »
Interaction of the mottler of white with transposable element alleles at the white locus in Drosophila melanogaster..
J A Birchler, J C Hiebert, and L Rabinow (1989)
Genes & Dev. 3, 73-84
   Abstract »    PDF »
Maternally inherited transposon excision in Drosophila simulans.
G. Bryan and D. Hartl (1988)
Science 240, 215-217
   Abstract »    PDF »


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