Saville K J, Warren W D, Atkinson P W, O'Brochta D A
Department of Biology, Albion College, MI 49224, USA.
Genetica. 1999;105(2):133-47. doi: 10.1023/a:1003712619487.
We analyzed the integration specificity of the hobo transposable element of Drosophila melanogaster. Our results indicate that hobo is similar to other transposable elements in that it can integrate into a large number of sites, but that some sites are preferred over others, with a few sites acting as integration hot spots. A comparison of DNA sequences from 112 hobo integration sites identified a consensus sequence of NTNNNNAC, but this consensus was insufficient to account for the observed integration specificity. To begin to define the parameters affecting hobo integration preferences, we analyzed sequences flanking a donor hobo element, as well as sequences flanking a hobo integration hot spot for their relative influence on hobo integration specificity. We demonstrate experimentally that sequences flanking a hobo donor element do not influence subsequent integration site preference, whereas, sequences contained within 31 base pairs flanking an integration hot spot have a significant effect on the frequency of integration into that site. However, sequence analysis of the DNA flanking several hot spots failed to identify any common sequence motif shared by these sites. This lack of primary sequence information suggests that higher order DNA structural characteristics of the DNA and/or chromatin may influence integration site selection by the hobo element.
我们分析了黑腹果蝇hobo转座元件的整合特异性。我们的结果表明，hobo与其他转座元件相似，它可以整合到大量位点中，但有些位点比其他位点更受青睐，少数位点充当整合热点。对112个hobo整合位点的DNA序列进行比较，确定了NTNNNNAC的共有序列，但该共有序列不足以解释观察到的整合特异性。为了开始确定影响hobo整合偏好的参数，我们分析了供体hobo元件两侧的序列，以及hobo整合热点两侧的序列对hobo整合特异性的相对影响。我们通过实验证明，hobo供体元件两侧的序列不会影响随后的整合位点偏好，而整合热点两侧31个碱基对内包含的序列对该位点的整合频率有显著影响。然而，对几个热点两侧DNA的序列分析未能识别出这些位点共有的任何共同序列基序。这种缺乏一级序列信息的情况表明，DNA和/或染色质的高阶DNA结构特征可能会影响hobo元件对整合位点的选择。
