The<i>Hermes</i>transposable element from the house fly,<i>Musca domestica</i>, is a short inverted repeat-type element of the<i>hobo, Ac</i>, and<i>Tam3</i>(<i>hAT</i>) element family

<jats:title>Summary</jats:title><jats:p>The genome of the house fly,<jats:italic>Musca domestica</jats:italic>, contains an active transposable element system, called<jats:italic>Hermes</jats:italic>. Using PCR and inverse PCR we amplified and sequenced overlapping segments of several<jats:italic>Hermes</jats:italic>elements and from these data we have constructed a 2749 bp consensus<jats:italic>Hermes</jats:italic>DNA sequence.<jats:italic>Hermes</jats:italic>termini are composed of 17 bp imperfect inverted repeats that are almost identical to the inverted terminal repeats of the<jats:italic>hobo</jats:italic>element of<jats:italic>Drosophila melanogaster</jats:italic>. Full length<jats:italic>Hermes</jats:italic>elements contain a single long ORF capable of encoding a protein of 612 amino acids which is 55% identical to the amino acid sequence of the<jats:italic>hobo</jats:italic>transposase. Comparison of the ends of the<jats:italic>Hermes</jats:italic>and<jats:italic>hobo</jats:italic>elements to those of the<jats:italic>Ac</jats:italic>element of<jats:italic>Zea mays</jats:italic>, and the<jats:italic>Tam3</jats:italic>element of<jats:italic>Antirrhinum majus</jats:italic>, as well as several other plant and insect elements, revealed a conserved terminal sequence motif. Thus<jats:italic>Hermes</jats:italic>is clearly a member of the<jats:italic>hobo</jats:italic>,<jats:italic>Ac</jats:italic>and<jats:italic>Tam3</jats:italic>(<jats:italic>hAT</jats:italic>) transposable element family, other members of which include the<jats:italic>Tagl</jats:italic>element from<jats:italic>Arabidopsis thaliana</jats:italic>and the<jats:italic>Bg</jats:italic>element from<jats:italic>Zea mays</jats:italic>. The evolution of this class of transposable elements and the potential utility of<jats:italic>Hermes</jats:italic>as a genetic tool in<jats:italic>M. domestica</jats:italic>and related species are discussed.</jats:p>