9631154 Lim A laboratory strain of Drosophila melanogaster produces Notch mutations at a rate exceeding 5% with a few sub-strains exceeding 20%. This exceptionally unstable genetic locus in the X chromosome is though to be due to an insertion of the hobo transposable element in a region of the gene that is not essential for expression. The hobo element interacts with other such elements in the X chromosome to create structural changes of two types; deletions or inversions which, in essence, restructure the chromosome. An hypothesis has been suggested to explain this remarkable high rate of chromosome restructuring and experiments are suggested to test the hypothesis. Although one hobo element from the Notch locus has been cloned, the other has not. That effort will be circumvented by modifying a hobo element in vitro so that it can be easily detected and to insert a single copy into the Uc-1 X chromosome. DNA sequences corresponding to both elements before and after inversion will be isolated, characterized and compared in order to analyze the mechanism involved in the molecular process of inversion production. Undergraduate students will be introduced to basic biological research by becoming involved in this research. ***
