Pianezza, Riccardo (University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna) Riccardo Pianezza Kofler, Robert (University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna) Robert Kofler Signor, Sarah (North Dakota State University) Sarah Signor Scarpa, Almorò (University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna) Almorò Scarpa Narayanan, Prakash (North Dakota State University) Prakash Narayanan Public Library of Science 2024 During the last few centuries D. melanogaster populations were invaded by several transposable elements, the most recent of which was thought to be the P-element between 1950 and 1980. Here we describe a novel TE, which we named Spoink, that has invaded D. melanogaster. It is a 5216nt LTR retrotransposon of the Ty3/gypsy superfamily. Relying on strains sampled at different times during the last century we show that Spoink invaded worldwide D. melanogaster populations after the P-element between 1983 and 1993. This invasion was likely triggered by a horizontal transfer from the D. willistoni group, much as the P-element. Spoink is probably silenced by the piRNA pathway in natural populations and about 1/3 of the examined strains have an insertion into a canonical piRNA cluster such as 42AB. Given the degree of genetic investigation of D. melanogaster it is perhaps surprising that Spoink was able to invade unnoticed. PDFDocument en 2024-05-14T09:20:28.237Z Animals; Drosophila melanogastergenetics; Retroelements; Piwi-Interacting RNA; Drosophilagenetics; DNA Transposable Elements 3660715 b application/pdf CC BY 4.0 International