Population dynamics of the response of the genomic pattern of the mobile genetic element Dm412 in Drosophila on selection for a quantitative trait

In an isogenic line of Drosophila melanogaster carrying the Mendelian mutation radius incompletus, selection for the total length of two segments of the disrupted longitudinal wing vein was conducted. After gamma-irradiation at a dose of 13 Gy, positive and negative truncation selection became highly effective and was completed in 50 generations. The pattern of mobile genetic element Dm412 was almost completely fixed in the course of selection. In the positive direction of selection, fixations of mobile genetic element (MGE) sites exceeded losses; in the negative direction, this relationship was reversed. The number of MGE sites in the pattern increased from 23 to 33 and to 26 in the positive and negative directions, respectively. The mean heterozygosity of MGE sites decreased respectively ten and six times. The dynamics of some sites (6F, 43B, 66A, 69E, and others) corresponded to that expected with an adaptive response to selection. Two out of these sites (43B and 66A) were previously assigned to hot sites of Dm412 transposition induced by heat shock. Fixation and loss of sites continued on average for tens of generations. Four hypotheses describe the relationship between patterns of polygenes and MGE in the context of explanation of the above facts: (1) genetic drift; (2) the linkage of MGE and polygenes without modification of the latter (hitchhiking); (3) the linkage and modifying effect of MGE on polygenes linked with them; (4) the selection of the "champion" pattern of polygenes and a random or adaptive MGE pattern linked with it. Hypotheses 1 and 2 are unlikely, hypothesis 3 is possible in the case of other selection modes, whereas hypothesis 4 seems to be most plausible.