Title
Evolutionary dynamics of piRNA clusters in Drosophila
Language
English
Description (en)
Small RNAs produced from transposable element (TE)-rich sections of the genome, termed piRNA clusters, are a crucial component in the genomic defence against selfish DNA. In animals, it is thought the invasion of a TE is stopped when a copy of the TE inserts into a piRNA cluster, triggering the production of cognate small RNAs that silence the TE. Despite this importance for TE control, little is known about the evolutionary dynamics of piRNA clusters, mostly because these repeat-rich regions are difficult to assemble and compare. Here, we establish a framework for studying the evolution of piRNA clusters quantitatively. Previously introduced quality metrics and a newly developed software for multiple alignments of repeat annotations (Manna) allow us to estimate the level of polymorphism segregating in piRNA clusters and the divergence among homologous piRNA clusters. By studying 20 conserved piRNA clusters in multiple assemblies of four Drosophila species, we show that piRNA clusters are evolving rapidly. While 70%-80% of the clusters are conserved within species, the clusters share almost no similarity between species as closely related as D. melanogaster and D. simulans. Furthermore, abundant insertions and deletions are segregating within the Drosophila species. We show that the evolution of clusters is mainly driven by large insertions of recently active TEs and smaller deletions mostly in older TEs. The effect of these forces is so rapid that homologous clusters often do not contain insertions from the same TE families.
Keywords (en)
Transposable Element; Population-Dynamics; Natural-Populations; Sequence Alignment; Melanogaster; Piwi; Heterochromatin; Chromatin; Gene; Biogenesis
DOI
10.1111/mec.16311
Author of the digital object
Filip  Wierzbicki  (University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna / Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics)
Robert  Kofler  (University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna)
Sarah  Signor  (North Dakota State University)
Format
application/pdf
Size
6.4 MB
Licence Selected
CC BY 4.0 International
Type of publication
Article
Name of Publication (en)
Molecular Ecology
Pages or Volume
17
Volume
32
Number
6
From Page
1306
To Page
1322
Publisher
Wiley
Publication Date
2021
Content
Details
Object type
PDFDocument
Format
application/pdf
Created
10.07.2024 08:23:06
This object is in collection
Metadata
Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien (Vetmeduni) | Veterinärplatz 1 | 1210 Wien - Österreich | T +43 1 25077-0 | Web: vetmeduni.ac.at