| Abstract |
At the present thesis the features of the mobile element Minos as a tool for genomic
analysis in Drosophila have been examined. We have developed systems for the in vivo
mobilisation of Minos – based transposons through the inducible expression of the
transposase protein, which are characterised by high levels of transposition. The
analysis of approximately 100 insertions of Minos in Drosophila revealed the ability of
the element to insert in genes that have not been targeted by other mobile elements so
far. Furthermore, Minos has been found to preferentially target the introns in
comparison to the exons of the genes. The computational analysis of the primary
structure and some physical properties of the DNA at the insertion sites showed that the
primary structure of the DNA that surrounds the dinucleotides - target ΤΑ affects the
target choice of the Minos transposase less, compared to other mobile elements that
belong to the superfamily Tc1/mariner. The physical properties of the DNA at the
insertion sites have an important impact on the target choice of the Minos transposase.
Despite the fact that the Minοs insertions in introns have not been found to be
mutagenic, we showed that the deletion of adjacent exonic sequences and, as a
consequence, the mutation of the relative gene, can be generated through the
mobilization of the transposon from the initial insertion site.
We developed an enhancer trapping system with the use of the gene Gal4 as a first
reporter gene. The genes expression patterns that have been observed with the certain
technique and the expression patterns of the endogenous genes, as they were detected
with the use of the RNA in situ hybridization technique, were similar.
The analysis of approximately 1000 insertions of Minos that have been characterized
by the Drosophila Genes Disruption Project group proved the ability of the element to
insert with a higher frequency in new genes, than the P element. The use of Minos as
the basic tool for the disruption of the Drosophila genes by the Drosophila Genes
Disruption Project will greatly advance the completion of the relative project.
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Το μεταθετό στοιχείο Minos ως εργαλείο λειτουργικής γονιδιωματικής ανάλυσης στη Δροσόφιλα
