Transposable elements contribute to the genomic response to insecticides in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Most of the genotype–phenotype analyses to date have largely centred attention on single nucleotide polymorphisms. However, transposable element (TE) insertions have arisen as a plausible addition to the study of the genotypic–phenotypic link because of to their role in genome function and evolution. In this work, we investigate the contribution of TE insertions to the regulation of gene expression in response to insecticides. We exposed four Drosophila melanogaster strains to malathion, a commonly used organophosphate insecticide. By combining information from different approaches, including RNA-seq and ATAC-seq, we found that TEs can contribute to the regulation of gene expression under insecticide exposure by rewiring cis-regulatory networks. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Crossroads between transposons and gene regulation’.