Intragenic suppression: Stalker, a retrovirus-like transposable element, can compensate for a deficiency at the cut locus of Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

A number of mutations at the cut locus were induced by non-precise excision of a silent P-element insertion which resulted in deletions at the regulatory region of the locus. Unexpectedly, a reversion of one of these mutations was found, which appears as a result of insertion of Stalker (a retrovirus-like mobile element) near the 1.3 kb deletion. Thus an insertion of a retrovirus-like mobile element can suppress the deficiency at the regulatory region of a gene.