Abstract The “cut-and-paste” P-element present in some Diptera illustrates two important transposable elements abilities: to move within genomes and to be transmitted between non-mating species, a phenomenon known as horizontal transposon transfer (HTT). Recent studies reported a HTT of the P-element from Drosophila melanogaster to D. simulans. P-elements first appeared in D. simulans European samples collected in 2006 and spread across several populations from Europe, Africa, North America and Japan within seven years. Nevertheless, no P-element was found in South American populations of D. simulans collected between 2002 and 2009. We investigated the presence of the P-element in D. simulans collected in five Brazilian localities between 2018 and 2019, using a combination of methodologies such as PCR, DNA sequencing and FISH on chromosomes. Our experiments revealed the presence of the P-element in all sampled individuals from the five localities. The number of P-elements per individual varied from 11 to 20 copies and truncated copies were also observed. Altogether, our results showed that P-element invasion in D. simulans is at an advanced stage in Brazil and, together with other recent studies, confirms the remarkable rapid invasion of P-elements across worldwide D. simulans populations.

中文翻译：

---

跟踪最近的水平转移事件：P 元素到达巴西拟果蝇种群

摘要 一些双翅目中存在的“剪切和粘贴”P 元件说明了两种重要的转座元件能力：在基因组内移动和在非交配物种之间传播，这种现象称为水平转座子转移 (HTT)。最近的研究报告了从黑腹果蝇到 D. simulans 的 P 元素的 HTT。P 元素首先出现在 2006 年收集的 D. simulans 欧洲样本中，并在七年内传播到来自欧洲、非洲、北美和日本的几个种群。然而，在 2002 年至 2009 年期间收集的南美拟南芥种群中未发现 P 元素。我们使用多种方法研究了 2018 年至 2019 年在巴西五个地区收集的拟南芥中 P 元素的存在例如染色体上的 PCR、DNA 测序和 FISH。我们的实验揭示了来自五个地点的所有采样个体中都存在 P 元素。每个个体的 P 元素数量从 11 到 20 个副本不等，还观察到截短的副本。总而言之，我们的结果表明，在巴西，模拟果蝇中 P 元素的入侵处于后期阶段，并且与最近的其他研究一起，证实了 P 元素在全球范围内的模拟果蝇种群中的显着快速入侵。