Isolation and analysis of a new hopper hAT transposon from the Bactrocera dorsalis white eye strain

A new hopper element belonging to the hAT transposon family was isolated from the white eye mutant strain of the Oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis. Using the original hopper element sequence from the wild type Kahuku strain as a template, the new hopper was isolated by inverse and direct PCR. Nucleotide sequence analysis reveals a 3131 bp element with terminal and subterminal inverted repeat sequences, an 8 bp duplicated insertion site, and a conceptual translation yielding a single uninterrupted 650 amino acid open reading frame. The white eye hopper has structure more consistent with function than the Kahuku element, indicating that hopper is not an ancient relic. The hopper element remains distantly related to other known hAT elements including those from insects, and presently it is most similar to Activator-related elements discovered in the human genome. DNA hybridization studies indicate, however, that elements closely related to hopper exist in another bactrocerid species, the melonfly, B. cucurbitae.