Disertation Research: Adaptive Response to Transposable Element Invasion

University Of California-Davis, Davis CA

Investigators

Abstract

Transposable elements (TEs) are small DNA sequences that increase their number in host genomes by replicative transposition (moving between different parts of the genome). Because of their negative fitness impacts on hosts, TEs are considered as genomic parasites and their interaction with host genomes is a fundamental and ubiquitous class of host-parasite coevolution. Even though happening infrequently, invasion of TEs into new hosts is expected to reveal a large evolutionary impact on host genomes over a short period because of the high rates of TE movements following the invasion. This study proposes to investigate host-TE coevolutionary dynamics from the host?s perspective by focusing on the evolutionary effects of P elements, which invaded Drosophila melanogaster less than a century ago. The research will identify candidate genes that might have an important role in the coevolutionary dynamics followed by an exploration of the functional consequences of those genes. Understanding the coevolution of hosts and TEs is crucial to human health because human genomes are also infested with TEs and they may be the cause of several human diseases. Also, TEs have been proposed as plausible biological control agents because of their replicative and invasive nature. This proposed study will further the understanding of the evolutionary impacts of introduced TEs on the targeted organisms, which is crucial for assessing the feasibility of such proposals.