Drosophila telomere transposon HeT-A produces a transcript with tightly bound protein.

Telomeres from Drosophila appear to be very different from those of other organisms. A transposable element, HeT-A, plays a major role in forming telomeres and may be the sole structural element, since telomerase-generated repeats are not found. The structure of the HeT-A element, deduced from cloned fragments of DNA, suggests that transposition of the element is mediated by a polyadenylylated RNA intermediate. We now report analyses of HeT-A transcripts. The major RNA is of the appropriate size and strandedness to serve as a transposition intermediate. This RNA is found in cultured cells and in intact flies and is unusual in that it is associated with protein after treatments that apparently remove all protein from other RNAs.