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Control of expression of the I factor, a LINE‐like transposable element in Drosophila melanogaster.
Author(s) -
Udomkit A.,
Forbes S.,
McLean C.,
Arkhipova I.,
Finnegan D. J.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1996.tb00680.x
Subject(s) - biology , library science , transposable element , genetics , gene , genome , computer science
I factors are LINE‐like transposable elements in the genome of Drosophila melanogaster. They normally transpose infrequently but are activated in the germline of female progeny of crosses between males of a strain that contains complete elements, an I or inducer strain and females of a strain that does not, an R or reactive strain. This causes a phenomenon known as I‐R hybrid dysgenesis. We have previously shown that the I factor promoter lies between nucleotides 1 and 30. Here we demonstrate that expression of this promoter is regulated by nucleotides 41–186 of the I factor. This sequence can act as an enhancer as it stimulates expression of the hsp7O promoter in ovaries in the absence of heat‐shock. Within this region there is a site that is required for promoter activity and that is recognized by a sequence‐specific binding protein. We propose that this protein contributes to the enhancer activity of nucleotides 41–186 and that reduced I factor expression in inducer strains is due to titration of this protein or others that interact with it.