Divergence of Drosophila melanogaster repeatomes in response to a sharp microclimate contrast in Evolution Canyon, Israel.

ABSTRACT: Repeat sequences, especially mobile elements, make up large portions of most eukaryotic genomes and provide enormous, albeit commonly underappreciated, evolutionary potential. We analyzed repeatomes of Drosophila melanogaster that have been diverging in response to a microclimate contrast in Evolution Canyon (Mount Carmel, Israel), a natural evolutionary laboratory with two abutting slopes at an average distance of only 200 m, which pose a constant ecological challenge to their local biotas. Flies inhabiting the colder and more humid north-facing slope carried about 6% more transposable elements than those from the hot and dry south-facing slope, in parallel to a suite of other genetic and phenotypic differences between the two populations. Nearly 50% of all mobile element insertions were

SUBMITTER: Kim YB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4115526 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature