[Organization of 5S ribosomal DNA of Melitaea trivia]

Two length variants of 5S rDNA repeated units were detected in the genome of East European butterfly Melitaea trivia. Both repeat variants contain the 5S rRNA coding region of the same length of 120 bp, but possess the intergenic spacer region (IGS) of different size, 78 and 125 bp, respectively. The level of sequence similarity between the two 5S rDNA variants amounts to 43.9-45.5% in the IGS, whereas the coding region appears to be more conservative. In the IGS, microsatellite sequence motives were found; amplification of these motives could be involved in the evolution of the 5S rDNA.