Neurobiology. In the article ''ORK1, a potassium-selective leak channel with two pore domains cloned from Drosophila melanogaster by expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae '' by Steve A. N. Goldstein, Laura A. Price, David N. Rosenthal, and Mark H. Pausch, which appeared in number 23, November 12, 1996, of Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (93, 13256-13261), the authors request that the following sequence correction be noted. We have found errors in the ORK1 nucleotide sequence reported in this work. The correct sequence extends the ORF and predicts a protein of 1001 residues; the correct nucleotide and predicted protein sequences are deposited under the GenBank accession no. U55321. The errors do not otherwise alter the conclusions of the paper. We are grateful to Noam Zilberberg (Yale Univ. School of Medicine, New Haven, CT) for his efforts to establish the correct sequence.Neurobiology. In the article "A Rap guanine nucleotide exchange factor enriched highly in the basal ganglia" by Hiroaki Kawasaki, Gregory M. Springett, Shinichiro Toki, Juan J. Canales, Patricia Harlan, Justin P. Blumenstiel, Emy J. Chen, I. Amy Bany, Naoki Mochizuki, Amy Ashbacher, Michiyuki Matsuda, David E. Housman, and Ann M. Graybiel, which appeared in number 22, October 27, 1998, of Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (95,(13278)(13279)(13280)(13281)(13282)(13283), due to a printer's error, the gene CalDAG-GEFII was referred to incorrectly in three places: in the heading of the second paragraph of Materials and Methods, in the first line of the Abbreviations footnote, and in line 11 of the second paragraph on page 13282. 318Corrections Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96 (1999) Contributed by Ann M. Graybiel, August 20, 1998 ABSTRACT Ras proteins, key regulators of growth, differentiation, and malignant transformation, recently have been implicated in synaptic function and region-specific learning and memory functions in the brain. Rap proteins, members of the Ras small G protein superfamily, can inhibit Ras signaling through the Ras͞Raf-1͞mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase pathway or, through B-Raf, can activate MAP kinase. Rap and Ras proteins both can be activated through guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs). Many Ras GEFs, but to date only one Rap GEF, have been identified. We now report the cloning of a brain-enriched gene, CalDAG-GEFI, which has substrate specificity for Rap1A, dual binding domains for calcium (Ca 2؉ ) and diacylglycerol (DAG), and enriched expression in brain basal ganglia pathways and their axon-terminal regions. Expression of CalDAG-GEFI activates Rap1A and inhibits Ras-dependent activation of the Erk͞MAP kinase cascade in 293T cells. Ca 2؉ ionophore and phorbol ester strongly and additively enhance this Rap1A activation. By contrast, CalDAG-GEFII, a second CalDAG-GEF family member that we cloned and found identical to

A century of genetic analysis has revealed that multiple mechanisms control the distribution of meiotic crossover events. In Drosophila melanogaster, two significant positional controls are interference and the strongly polar centromere effect. Here, we assess the factors controlling the distribution of crossovers (COs) and noncrossover gene conversions (NCOs) along all five major chromosome arms in 196 single meiotic divisions to generate a more detailed understanding of these controls on a genome-wide scale. Analyzing the outcomes of single meiotic events allows us to distinguish among different classes of meiotic recombination. In so doing, we identified 291 NCOs spread uniformly among the five major chromosome arms and 541 COs (including 52 double crossovers and one triple crossover). We find that unlike COs, NCOs are insensitive to the centromere effect and do not demonstrate interference. Although the positions of COs appear to be determined predominately by the long-range influences of interference and the centromere effect, each chromosome may display a different pattern of sensitivity to interference, suggesting that interference may not be a uniform global property. In addition, unbiased sequencing of a large number of individuals allows us to describe the formation of de novo copy number variants, the majority of which appear to be mediated by unequal crossing over between transposable elements. This work has multiple implications for our understanding of how meiotic recombination is regulated to ensure proper chromosome segregation and maintain genome stability.

Hybrid dysgenesis in Drosophila is a syndrome of gonadal atrophy, sterility, and male recombination, and it occurs in the progeny of crosses between males that harbor certain transposable elements (TEs) and females that lack them. Known examples of hybrid dysgenesis in Drosophila melanogaster result from mobilization of individual families of TEs, such as the P element, the I element, or hobo. An example of hybrid dysgenesis in Drosophila virilis is unique in that multiple, unrelated families of TEs become mobilized, but a TE designated Penelope appears to play a major role. In all known examples of hybrid dysgenesis, the paternal germ line transmits the TEs in an active state, whereas the female germ line maintains repression of the TEs. The mechanism of maternal maintenance of repression is not known. Recent evidence suggests that the molecular machinery of RNA interference may function as an important host defense against TEs. This protection is mediated by the action of endogenous small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) composed of dsRNA molecules of 21-25 nt that can target complementary transcripts for destruction. In this paper, we demonstrate that endogenous siRNA derived from the Penelope element is maternally loaded in embryos through the female germ line in D. virilis. We also present evidence that the maternal inheritance of these endogenous siRNAs may contribute to maternal repression of Penelope.hybrid dysgenesis ͉ maternal effect ͉ RNA interference ͉ transposable element

Next-generation methods for rapid whole-genome sequencing enable the identification of single-basepair mutations in Drosophila by comparing a chromosome bearing a new mutation to the unmutagenized sequence. To validate this approach, we sought to identify the molecular lesion responsible for a recessive EMS-induced mutation affecting egg shell morphology by using Illumina next-generation sequencing. After obtaining sufficient sequence from larvae that were homozygous for either wild-type or mutant chromosomes, we obtained high-quality reads for base pairs composing $70% of the third chromosome of both DNA samples. We verified 103 single-base-pair changes between the two chromosomes. Nine changes were nonsynonymous mutations and two were nonsense mutations. One nonsense mutation was in a gene, encore, whose mutations produce an egg shell phenotype also observed in progeny of homozygous mutant mothers. Complementation analysis revealed that the chromosome carried a new functional allele of encore, demonstrating that one round of next-generation sequencing can identify the causative lesion for a phenotype of interest. This new method of whole-genome sequencing represents great promise for mutant mapping in flies, potentially replacing conventional methods. S TANDARD practices of genetic mapping typically occur in three phases. First, polymorphisms that distinguish the chromosome carrying the mutation to be mapped from that of the homolog bearing a wild-type allele of that gene must be identified. Second, by genotyping recombinant chromosomes that do or do not carry the mutation of interest, an association between polymorphisms and the mutation can be identified, which can then be used to pinpoint the location of the relevant mutation. Finally, candidate genes within the interval must be identified and regions sequenced to find the causative mutation. Often, these three steps are performed iteratively. In situations where there are few polymorphic markers or candidate genes, this process can be arduous and, depending on the organism, can consume months to years.New genome-sequencing technologies (Margulies et al. 2005;Bentley 2006;Barski et al. 2007;Sarin et al. 2008;Smith et al. 2008;Valouev et al. 2008) show tremendous promise for reducing the time needed to identify causative mutations. Using these approaches, one may be able to directly identify causative lesions by comparing the nucleotide sequences of wild-type and mutant genomes. Indeed, we have conducted a proofof-principle experiment to determine the feasibility of such an approach in Drosophila melanogaster. In the course of conducting an EMS-based genetic screen, we identified a chromosome, designated 791, which displayed a fused dorsal appendage phenotype in embryos of homozygous mothers. Such phenotypes usually arise from a defect in the maternal establishment of the dorso-ventral axis. To identify the mutated gene that gives rise to this phenotype, we used a next-generation sequencing platform to directly compare the nucleotide sequence of the...

In most organisms the synaptonemal complex (SC) connects paired homologs along their entire length during much of meiotic prophase. To better understand the structure of the SC, we aim to identify its components and to determine how each of these components contributes to SC function. Here, we report the identification of a novel SC component in Drosophila melanogaster female oocytes, which we have named Corolla. Using structured illumination microscopy, we demonstrate that Corolla is a component of the central region of the SC. Consistent with its localization, we show by yeast two-hybrid analysis that Corolla strongly interacts with Cona, a central element protein, demonstrating the first direct interaction between two inner-synaptonemal complex proteins in Drosophila. These observations help provide a more complete model of SC structure and function in Drosophila females.

How natural selection acts to limit the proliferation of transposable elements (TEs) in genomes has been of interest to evolutionary biologists for many years. To describe TE dynamics in populations, previous studies have used models of transposition–selection equilibrium that assume a constant rate of transposition. However, since TE invasions are known to happen in bursts through time, this assumption may not be reasonable. Here we propose a test of neutrality for TE insertions that does not rely on the assumption of a constant transposition rate. We consider the case of TE insertions that have been ascertained from a single haploid reference genome sequence. By conditioning on the age of an individual TE insertion allele (inferred by the number of unique substitutions that have occurred within the particular TE sequence since insertion), we determine the probability distribution of the insertion allele frequency in a population sample under neutrality. Taking models of varying population size into account, we then evaluate predictions of our model against allele frequency data from 190 retrotransposon insertions sampled from North American and African populations of Drosophila melanogaster. Using this nonequilibrium neutral model, we are able to explain ∼80% of the variance in TE insertion allele frequencies based on age alone. Controlling for both nonequilibrium dynamics of transposition and host demography, we provide evidence for negative selection acting against most TEs as well as for positive selection acting on a small subset of TEs. Our work establishes a new framework for the analysis of the evolutionary forces governing large insertion mutations like TEs, gene duplications, or other copy number variants.

No abstract

Transposable elements (TEs) play a fundamental role in the evolution of genomes. In Drosophila they are disproportionately represented in regions of low recombination, such as in heterochromatin. This pattern has been attributed to selection against repeated elements in regions of normal recombination, owing to either (1) the slightly deleterious position effects of TE insertions near or into genes, or (2) strong selection against chromosomal abnormalities arising from ectopic exchange between TE repeats. We have used defective non-long-terminal repeat (LTR) TEs that are "dead-on-arrival" (DOA) and unable to transpose in order to estimate spontaneous deletion rates in different constituents of chromatin. These elements have previously provided evidence for an extremely high rate of spontaneous deletion in Drosophila as compared with mammals, potentially explaining at least part of the differences in the genome sizes in these organisms. However, rates of deletion could be overestimated due to positive selection for a smaller likelihood of ectopic exchange. In this article, we show that rates of spontaneous deletion in DOA repeats are as high in heterochromatin and regions of euchromatin with low recombination as they are in regions of euchromatin with normal recombination. We have also examined the age distribution of five non-LTR families throughout the genome. We show that there is substantial variation in the historical pattern of transposition of these TEs. The overrepresentation of TEs in the heterochromatin is primarily due to their longer retention time in heterochromatin, as evidenced by the average time since insertion. Fragments inserted recently are much more evenly distributed in the genome. This contrast demonstrates that the accumulation of TEs in heterochromatin and in euchromatic regions of low recombination is not due to biased transposition but by greater probabilities of fixation in these regions relative to regions of normal recombination.