Horizontal transmission versus vertical inheritance of P elements in Drosophila and Scaptomyza: has the M-type subfamily spread from East Asia?

Abstract

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening for P elements was carried out in 77 species with a primer set highly specific for the M-type subfamily. In the course of this search M-type elements were detected in 29 species: In the melanogaster (subgroups montium and rhopaloa) and obscura species groups of Drosophila (25 out of 71 species examined), and in the genus Scaptomyza (four out of six species). M-type elements are present in all species of the montium subgroup investigated so far (21), but occur only sporadically in other groups. Within the montium subgroup 20 species possess only incomplete copies, only one species (D. lacteicornis) harbours apparently full-sized elements. In contrast, outside the montium subgroup almost all species with M-type elements carry full-sized copies suggesting transpositional activity, at least in the recent past. The interior section of the full-sized M-type element of D. lacteicornis was partially sequenced (936 bp). In addition, the complete sequences of four internally deleted M-type elements of D. lacteicornis, D. rufa, D. quadraria, and D. triauraria were determined. Sequence comparisons (including sequence data from previous investigations) revealed striking discrepancies between P element phylogeny and the cladogenesis of their host species. Among several possible pathways for interspecific transfers of M-type elements, we favour the hypothesis assuming the invasion of Scaptomyza as well as the obscura group species of Drosophila via independent transmission routes originating from Asian species of the montium subgroup of Drosophila. The logical geographic scenario for these events would be East-Asia.