Transposable elements in commercially useful insects: I. Southern hybridization study of silkworms and honeybees using Drosophila probes.

As a first step in surveying transposable elements in silkworms and honeybees, hybridization analyses were carried out using 16 known families of Drosophila transposable elements as probes. jockey and G were the only transposable elements that hybridized with genomic DNA of either honeybees or silkworms under the conditions of this study. jockey hybridized with genomic DNA of both European honeybees (Apis mellifera) and silkworms (Bombyx mori and Antheraea yamamai) and showed significant bands in Southern blots. Banding patterns were highly polymorphic. jockey did not, however, hybridize with any strains of the Asian honeybee (A. cerana). G elements showed a faint signal with the Asian honeybee, but not with any other insects tested. The results suggest that, even though it has some limitations, this approach can be used in practice as a first preliminary step in surveys for the presence of transposable elements in organisms which do not have good genetic information.