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The Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni , contains multiple members of the hAT family of transposable elements
Author(s) -
Pinkerton A. C.,
Whyard S.,
Mende H. A.,
Coates C. J.,
O’Brochta D. A.,
Atkinson P. W.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
insect molecular biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.955
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-2583
pISSN - 0962-1075
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2583.1999.00137.x
Subject(s) - transposase , transposable element , biology , inverted repeat , open reading frame , tephritidae , genetics , genome , botany , gene , pest analysis , peptide sequence
Members of the hAT transposable element family are mobile in non‐host insect species and have been used as transformation vectors in some of these species. We report that the Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni , contains at least two types of insect hAT elements called Homer and a Homer ‐like element ( HLE ). The Homer element is 3789 bp in size and contains 12‐bp imperfect inverted terminal repeats. The Homer element contains a long open reading frame (ORF) that encodes a putative transposase. Three different copies of this long ORF were recovered from the B. tryoni genome and, upon transcription and translation in an in vitro system, all produced transposase. The HLE is an incomplete element since no 3′ inverted terminal repeat (ITR) was found. Homer and the HLE are as related to one another as either is to the other insect hAT elements such as Hermes , hobo , hermit and hopper . The structure and distribution of these two Homer elements is described.