A unique cluster of roo insertions in the promoter region of a stress response gene in Drosophila melanogaster

Transposable elements (TEs) are not randomly distributed in the genome. A genome-wide analysis of the D. melanogaster genome found that differences in TE density across 50 kb genomic regions was due both to transposition and duplication. At smaller genomic scales, promoter regions of hsp genes and the promoter region of CG18446 have been shown to accumulate TE insertions. In this work, we have further analyzed the promoter region of CG18446. We screened 218 strains collected in 15 natural populations, and we found that the CG18446 promoter region contains 20 independent roo insertions. Based on phylogenetic analysis, we suggest that the presence of multiple roo insertions in this region is likely to be the result of several bursts of transposition. Moreover, we found that the roo insertional cluster in the CG18446 promoter region is unique: no other promoter region in the genome contains a similar number of roo insertions. We found that, similar to hsp gene promoters, chromatin accessibility could be one of the factors explaining the recurrent insertions of roo elements in CG18446 promoter region. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13100-019-0152-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.