Synthesis and characterization of bis-MPA based branched polymers with thymine core

Synthesis and characterisation of the bis-MPA based branched materials was performed. Thymine derivative was incorporated into the polymer structure as a core moiety and an active centre for H-bonding. The formation of assemblies was investigated.Im Rammen der Doktorarbeit wurden bis-MPA basierter dendrititsche und hochverzweigte Polymeren synthetisiert. Sie haben Thymin Derivat als Kernmolecule. Die H-Brücken zwischen Polymeren und DAPy Derivate wurden untersucht

Molecular dissection of Penelope transposable element regulatory machinery

© 2008 The Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The definitive version was published in Nucleic Acids Research 36 (2008): 2522-2529, doi:10.1093/nar/gkm1166Penelope-like elements (PLEs) represent a new class of retroelements identified in more than 80 species belonging to at least 10 animal phyla. Penelope isolated from Drosophila virilis is the only known transpositionally active representative of this class. Although the size and structure of the Penelope major transcript has been previously described in both D. virilis and D. melanogaster transgenic strains, the architecture of the Penelope regulatory region remains unknown. In order to determine the localization of presumptive Penelope promoter and enhancer-like elements, segments of the putative Penelope regulatory region were linked to a CAT reporter gene and introduced into D. melanogaster by P-element-mediated transformation. The results obtained using ELISA to measure CAT expression levels and RNA studies, including RT–PCR, suggest that the active Penelope transposon contains an internal promoter similar to the TATA-less promoters of LINEs. The results also suggest that some of the Penelope regulatory sequences control the preferential expression in the ovaries of the adult flies by enhancing expression in the ovary and reducing expression in the carcass. The possible significance of the intron within Penelope for the function and evolution of PLEs, and the effect of Penelope insertions on adjacent genes, are discussed.This work was supported by grants from Russian Academy of Sciences (Cell and Molecular Biology to M.E.), and Welcome Trust Grant (075698) to M.E and D.J.F

Evolutionary Dynamics of the Pericentromeric Heterochromatin in Drosophila virilis and Related Species

Pericentromeric heterochromatin in Drosophila generally consists of repetitive DNA, forming the environment associated with gene silencing. Despite the expanding knowledge of the impact of transposable elements (TEs) on the host genome, little is known about the evolution of pericentromeric heterochromatin, its structural composition, and age. During the evolution of the Drosophilidae, hundreds of genes have become embedded within pericentromeric regions yet retained activity. We investigated a pericentromeric heterochromatin fragment found in D. virilis and related species, describing the evolution of genes in this region and the age of TE invasion. Regardless of the heterochromatic environment, the amino acid composition of the genes is under purifying selection. However, the selective pressure affects parts of genes in varying degrees, resulting in expansion of gene introns due to TEs invasion. According to the divergence of TEs, the pericentromeric heterochromatin of the species of virilis group began to form more than 20 million years ago by invasions of retroelements, miniature inverted repeat transposable elements (MITEs), and Helitrons. Importantly, invasions into the heterochromatin continue to occur by TEs that fall under the scope of piRNA silencing. Thus, the pericentromeric heterochromatin, in spite of its ability to induce silencing, has the means for being dynamic, incorporating the regions of active transcription

Expression of Drosophila virilis Retroelements and Role of Small RNAs in Their Intrastrain Transposition

Transposition of two retroelements (Ulysses and Penelope) mobilized in the course of hybrid dysgenesis in Drosophila virilis has been investigated by in situ hybridization on polytene chromosomes in two D. virilis strains of different cytotypes routinely used to get dysgenic progeny. The analysis has been repeatedly performed over the last two decades, and has revealed transpositions of Penelope in one of the strains, while, in the other strain, the LTR-containing element Ulysses was found to be transpositionally active. The gypsy retroelement, which has been previously shown to be transpositionally inactive in D. virilis strains, was also included in the analysis. Whole mount is situ hybridization with the ovaries revealed different subcellular distribution of the transposable elements transcripts in the strains studied. Ulysses transpositions occur only in the strain where antisense piRNAs homologous to this TE are virtually absent and the ping-pong amplification loop apparently does not take place. On the other hand small RNAs homologous to Penelope found in the other strain, belong predominantly to the siRNA category (21nt), and consist of sense and antisense species observed in approximately equal proportion. The number of Penelope copies in the latter strain has significantly increased during the last decades, probably because Penelope-derived siRNAs are not maternally inherited, while the low level of Penelope-piRNAs, which are faithfully transmitted from mother to the embryo, is not sufficient to silence this element completely. Therefore, we speculate that intrastrain transposition of the three retroelements studied is controlled predominantly at the post-transcriptional level

Synthesis and characterization of bis-MPA based branched polymers with thymine core

Synthesis and characterisation of the bis-MPA based branched materials was performed. Thymine derivative was incorporated into the polymer structure as a core moiety and an active centre for H-bonding. The formation of assemblies was investigated.Im Rammen der Doktorarbeit wurden bis-MPA basierter dendrititsche und hochverzweigte Polymeren synthetisiert. Sie haben Thymin Derivat als Kernmolecule. Die H-Brücken zwischen Polymeren und DAPy Derivate wurden untersucht

Synthesis and characterization of bis-MPA based branched polymers with thymine core

Synthesis and characterisation of the bis-MPA based branched materials was performed. Thymine derivative was incorporated into the polymer structure as a core moiety and an active centre for H-bonding. The formation of assemblies was investigated.Im Rammen der Doktorarbeit wurden bis-MPA basierter dendrititsche und hochverzweigte Polymeren synthetisiert. Sie haben Thymin Derivat als Kernmolecule. Die H-Brücken zwischen Polymeren und DAPy Derivate wurden untersucht

Maternal deposition and distribution levels of <i>Penelope</i>-derived small RNAs.

<p>siRNAs at (A, B) and piRNAs at (C, D) in strain 160 and its 0–2 h embryos. Sense small RNAs are indicated in red, antisense–in blue.</p

Molecular dissection of Penelope transposable

element regulatory machiner

Transcription levels of selected <i>D. virilis</i> TEs.

<p>(A) semiquantitative RT-PCR data for ovaries and carcasses; (B) Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of TE transcription levels in ovaries. Since RT-PCR failed to reveal any transcription of <i>Penelope</i> and <i>Helena</i> in strain 9, we do not include the results of comparative analysis of these TEs by qRT-PCR in the panel; (C) Northern blot detection of <i>Ulysses</i> and <i>gypsyDv</i> sense transcripts in strains 9 and 160. Poly-A RNAs isolated from strain 9, strain 160 and <i>D. melanogaster</i> yw^67c23 strain ovaries were used. The size of marker RNA is given in nt at the right. The filter was rehybridized with a fragment of constitutively expressed <i>D. melanogaster rp49</i> to monitor the level of loaded RNA.</p