Abstract
The “cut-and-paste” P-element present in some Diptera illustrates two important transposable elements abilities: to move within genomes and to be transmitted between non-mating species, a phenomenon known as horizontal transposon transfer (HTT). Recent studies reported a HTT of the P-element from Drosophila melanogaster to D. simulans. P-elements first appeared in D. simulans European samples collected in 2006 and spread across several populations from Europe, Africa, North America and Japan within seven years. Nevertheless, no P-element was found in South American populations of D. simulans collected between 2002 and 2009. We investigated the presence of the P-element in D. simulans collected in five Brazilian localities between 2018 and 2019, using a combination of methodologies such as PCR, DNA sequencing and FISH on chromosomes. Our experiments revealed the presence of the P-element in all sampled individuals from the five localities. The number of P-elements per individual varied from 11 to 20 copies and truncated copies were also observed. Altogether, our results showed that P-element invasion in D. simulans is at an advanced stage in Brazil and, together with other recent studies, confirms the remarkable rapid invasion of P-elements across worldwide D. simulans populations.
Highlights
Transposable elements (TEs) are DNA sequences usually less than 15 kb long that possess an intrinsic ability to mobilize and change their genomic location, with new copies generated during the process
The P-element illustrates two important features of transposable elements: their ability to jump within genomes and their capacity of spreading between non-mating species, a phenomenon known as horizontal transposon transfer (HTT) (Silva and Kidwell, 2000)
In order to investigate whether the P-element reached South American D. simulans populations, we looked for its presence in flies recently collected in Brazil
Summary
Transposable elements (TEs) are DNA sequences usually less than 15 kb long that possess an intrinsic ability to mobilize and change their genomic location, with new copies generated during the process. A second invasion has been recently reported, this time involving a D. melanogaster P-element variant into Drosophila simulans, in which no P-elements had previously been detected (Kofler et al, 2015).
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