Why Study the F Element?

In this lecture for the 2022 GEP Summer Scholars program, Professor Sarah C. R. Elgin from Washington University in St. Louis describes the scientific rationale for using comparative genomics to study the expansion of the Muller F Element in four Drosophila species.
The Drosophila melanogaster Muller F Element (also known as the “dot” chromosome) exhibits unusual characteristics - while the F Element is mostly heterochromatic, the distal 1.3 Mb of the F Element contains ~80 protein-coding genes which show a range of expression levels similar to genes located in euchromatic domains. The F Elements of four Drosophila species have undergone different levels of expansion compared to D. melanogaster (i.e., ~2.3 Mb in D. kikkawai, ~3.2 Mb in D. takahashii, ~20 Mb in D. ananassae and D. bipectinata). The F Element Expansion project aims to identify the major contributors to this expansion in four Drosophila species, and the impact of the expansion on gene characteristics.
This lecture provides an overview of the C-value paradox, transposon silencing, the mechanisms for heterochromatin formation and maintenance, the heterochromatin and repeat structures of the D. melanogaster F Element, and the use of phylogenetic footprinting to identify conserved regulatory motifs. The lecture concludes with a summary of the initial findings of the F Element Expansion project based on the work by GEP students.
The slides used in this video can be accessed as a
1) PowerPoint: community.gep.... (automatically downloads)
2) PDF: community.gep....
Special thanks to Logan Cohen (Worcester State University) for his manual review of the subtitles to ensure this video is accessible to our students!
-
Learn more about the F Element Project: thegep.org/pro...
Learn more about the Genomics Education Partnership (GEP): thegep.org​
Follow GEP on Twitter: / gep_cure​
-