Tirant stealthily invaded natural <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i> populations during the last century
Journal: bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
Year: 2020

Abstract It was long thought that solely three different transposable elements - the I-element, the P-element and hobo - invaded natural D. melanogaster populations within the last century. By sequencing the ‘living fossils’ of Drosophila research, i.e. D. melanogaster strains sampled from natural populations at different time points, we show that a fourth TE, Tirant, invaded D. melanogaster populations during the past century. Tirant likely spread in D. melanogaster populations around 1938, fol