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These are site-occupancy frequency profiles of Herves in three species of Anopheles in Moazambique. The red bars represent the observed data and they show that many of the sites occupied by Herves elements were observed in only a small number of the insects sampled. There were sites that were observed to occupied by Herves in a large number of individuals but these were relatively rare. These data allow us to make some inferences about the activity of the element in these populations, given certain assumptions. The green and blue bars are the expected occupancy frequency profile predicted by a popular model of transposble element dynamics.
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This is a gene tree that includes major representatives of the hAT family of transposable elements. It shows that Herves is distinct from most other insect hAT elements that have been studied including hobo and Hermes. The numbers in the boxes are nodal support values. This tree was constructed using a maximum likelihood and maximum parsimony algorithms. The top number is max. likelihood reliability measure and the bottom number is a bootstrap value.
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Lab - Project 1
hobo-like elements in insects
Insect-borne diseases such as malaria continue to devastate a large fraction of the world’s population. Transposable elements are playing an increasing role in the investigation of the basic biology of mosquitoes in the laboratory. They also have the potential to provide important insights into the population genetics of species with rather complex organizations such as the An. gambiae species complex and could play a central role in efforts to use biotechnology to reduce pathogen  transmission by these mosquitoes. Understanding the behavior of active Class II transposable elements in natural populations of An. gambiae will contribute to ongoing efforts to develop transposable element-based laboratory tools, understand the population genetics of the An. gambiae complex and apply biotechnological approaches to controlling pathogen transmission.
The long-range goals of this research program are to:
- Gain an understanding of the basic biochemistry, genetics and evolution of transposable elements, their movement and regulation.
- Use this biological information to develop transposable elements into efficient and effective gene vectors for non-drosophilid insects.
- Participate in the deployment of this technology against insect-related health problems
This project began with the investigation of the Drosophila melanogasterhobo elements including their behavior in non-drosophilid insects. This led directly to the discovery of the Hermes transposable element in Musca domestic and the development of an effective wide host range insect gene vector and an increased understanding of an important family of transposable elements. Those studies recently led to the discovery of a functional and active hobo–like element, Herves, in An. gambiae.
Herves provides opportunities to investigate the dynamics of transposable element movement in An. gambiae that will lead to insights into the fate of released transgenes contained within transposable element gene vectors in natural populations. Herves is also a new platform upon which functional gene vectors are being constructed. Mosquito-derived gene vectors may have improved functionality in mosquitoes relative to existing vectors, improving our abilities to genetically manipulate mosquitoes.
The specific aims of this project are:
- Determine the distribution and structure of Herves in populations of An. gambiae and related species.
- Characterize Herves movement within experimental and natural populations of An. gambiae.
- Develop and assess Herves as a mosquito gene vector and genetic drive agen
For more information:
This publication describes the Herves element: Arensburger P, Kim YJ, Orsetti J, Aluvihare C, O’Brochta DA, Atkinson PW. (2005) An Active Transposable Element, Herves, From the African Malaria Mosquito Anopheles gambiae. Genetics. 169(2):697-708.
This publication describes some of our first observations concerning the natural history of Herves in Anopheles gambiae: O’Brochta, D. A., Subramanian, R. A., Orsetti, J., Peckham, E., Nolan, N., Arensberger, P, Atkinson, P.W., Charlwood, D. (in press). hAT element population genetics in Anophelesgambiae s.l. in Mozambique. Genetica.
You can find other publications related to this project here.
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