Selection and Transposition of Mobile Dispersed Genes in Drosophila melanogaster

A Brief History of the Status of Transposable Elements: From Junk DNA to Major Players in Evolution

“…Several Russian teams were in the vanguard of this research, and they referred to the first TEs of Drosophila as ''mobile dispersed genes'' (mdg), a term that everybody could understand. mdg1, mdg2, mdg3, and mdg4 were the first to be discovered and described (Ananiev and Ilyin 1981;Kulguskin et al 1981;Gvozdev et al 1981). This numerical nomenclature was soon superseded by more colorful names such as gypsy (mdg4), copia, and 412.…”

Directional selection on body weight and hybrid dysgenesis in Drosophila melanogaster

“…In both types of crosses, hybrid dysgenesis induced modification in body weight variance, probably by I and I'-induced (1981) and Mackay (1984Mackay ( , 1985, using the mdg-1 mobile element and P elements respectively, have shown that transposable elements can contribute to selection response. This may occur either through preferential insertion (Gvozdev et al, 1981), or as transposable element-induced variability which permits a greater selection response (Mackay, 1984(Mackay, , 1985. However, the observation of greater selection response from dysgenic than from nondysgenic crosses has not been repeated (Morton and Hall, 1985;Torkamanzehi et al, 1988;Pignatelli and Mackay, 1989).…”

The sources of genetic variability in highly inbred long-term selected strains of Drosophila melanogaster

“…It was also found that their transposition can be effectively induced by selection for increased fitness (Gvozdev et at., 1981;Belyaeva et al, 1982;Pasyukova et al, 1986). Little is known about the abilities of the LA strain to induce hybrid dysgenesis other than the fact that it doesn't contain any P-elements, as revealed by in situ hybridization (Pasyukova et al, 1987).…”