EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENTOMOLOGYENTOMOLOGY ISSN (online): 1802-8829 Eur. J. Entomol. 114: 379–390, 2017 http://www.eje.cz doi: 10.14411/eje.2017.049 ORIGINAL ARTICLE An overview of irritans-mariner transposons in two Mayetiola species (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) WIEM BEN AMARA1, SALMA DJEBBI 1, DHIA BOUKTILA1, 2, MOHAMED MAKNI 1, HANEM MAKNI 1, 3 and MAHA MEZGHANI-KHEMAKHEM 1, * 1 Unité de Recherche Génomique des Insectes Ravageurs des Cultures d’intérêt agronomique (UR11ES10), Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, Université de Tunis El Manar, 2092 El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia; e-mails:
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected] 2 Institut Supérieur de Biotechnologie de Béja (ISBB) – Université de Jendouba, Tunisia 3 Institut Supérieur de l’Animation pour la Jeunesse et la Culture (ISAJC), Université de Tunis, Bir El Bey, Tunisia Key words. Diptera, Cecidomyiidae, Mayetiola destructor, Mayetiola hordei, Sitodiplosis mosellana, irritans subfamily, in silico analysis, in vitro experiments, mariner-like element, transposons Abstract. Mariner-like elements (MLEs) are widespread Class II transposable elements in insects that are subdivided into several subfamilies. In the current study, we carried out in silico analysis and in vitro experiments to identify MLEs belonging to the irritans subfamily in two cecidomyiid fl ies, Mayetiola destructor and M. hordei. In silico investigation of M. destructor genome allowed the identifi cation of 25 irritans-like elements, which were mostly defective due to several mutations. These defective forms might be the remnants of active elements that ancestrally invaded the host genome.