Gene silencing triggered by non-LTR retrotransposons in the female germline of Drosophila melanogaster.

摘要: Several studies have recently shown that the activity of some eukaryotic transposable elements is sensitive to presence homologous transgenes, suggesting involvement homology-dependent gene-silencing mechanisms in their regulation. Here we provide data indicating two non-LTR retrotransposons Drosophila melanogaster are themselves natural triggers gene silencing. We show that, female germline D. melanogaster, fragments from R1 or I can mediate silencing chimeric transcription units into which they inserted. This probably mediated by sequence identity with endogenous copies because it does not occur a fragment divergent Bombyx mori, and, when used, occurs only females containing functional element. accompanied cosuppression unit, contrasts other Drosophila. These observations suggest and may self-regulate own copy number triggering