Is hobo permissivity related to I reactivity and sensitive to chromatin compaction in Drosophila melanogaster?

Abstract

In Drosophila melanogaster, the hobo transposable element is responsible for a hybrid dysgenesis syndrome. It appears in the germline of progenies from crosses between females devoid of hobo elements (E) and males bearing active hobo elements (H). In the HE system, permissivity is the ability of females to permit hobo activity in their progeny when they have been crossed with H males. Permissivity displays both intra- and inter-strain variability and decreases with the age of the females. Such characteristics are reminiscent of those for the reactivity in the IR system. The reactivity is the ability of R females (devoid of I factors) to permit activity of the I LINE retrotransposon in the F1 females resulting from crosses with 1 males (bearing I factors). Here we investigated permissivity properties in the HE system related to reactivity in the IR system. Previously it had been shown that reactivity increases with the number of Su(var)3-9 genes, which increases chromatin compaction near heterochromatin. Using the same lines, we show that permissivity increases with the number of Su(var)3-9 genes. To investigate the impact of chromatin compaction on permissivity we have tested the polymorphism of position-effect variegation (PEV) on the whitemottle4 locus in RE strains. Our results suggest a model of regulation in which permissivity could depend on the chromatin state and on the hobo vestigial sequences. © 2004 Cambridge University Press.