ArticleBMC biology2023
The composition of piRNA clusters in Drosophila melanogaster deviates from expectations under the trap model.
Article in BMC biology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- AbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Rapid evolution and comparative analysis of piRNA clusters inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The impact of insertion bias into piRNA clusters on the invasion of transposable elements.BMC biology · 2025Article
- Purifying selection shapes the dynamics of P-element invasion in Drosophila simulans populations.Genome biology · 2025Article
- Substantial Hierarchical Reductions of Genetic and Morphological Traits in the Evolution of Rotiferan Parasites.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- A comparative roadmap of PIWI-interacting RNAs across seven species reveals insights into de novo piRNA-precursor formation in mammals.Cell reports · 2024Article
- Genomes of historical specimens reveal multiple invasions of LTR retrotransposons inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Spoink, a LTR retrotransposon, invaded D. melanogaster populations in the 1990s.PLoS genetics · 2024Article
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2 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundIt is widely assumed that the invasion of a transposable element (TE) in mammals and invertebrates is stopped when a copy of the TE jumps into a piRNA cluster (i.e., the trap model). However, recent works, which for example showed that deletion of three major piRNA clusters has no effect on TE activity, cast doubt on the trap model.
resultsHere, we test the trap model from a population genetics perspective. Our simulations show that the composition of regions that act as transposon traps (i.e., potentially piRNA clusters) ought to deviate from regions that have no effect on TE activity. We investigated TEs in five Drosophila melanogaster strains using three complementary approaches to test whether the composition of piRNA clusters matches these expectations. We found that the abundance of TE families inside and outside of piRNA clusters is highly correlated, although this is not expected under the trap model. Furthermore, the distribution of the number of TE insertions in piRNA clusters is also much broader than expected.
conclusionsWe found that the observed composition of piRNA clusters is not in agreement with expectations under the simple trap model. Dispersed piRNA producing TE insertions and temporal as well as spatial heterogeneity of piRNA clusters may account for these deviations.
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