Adaptation to transposable elements in Drosophila simulans

We study Drosophila simulans lines collected during early and late stages of the invasion of the P-element, a transposable element, in these species. Small non-coding RNAs, piRNAs, are known to be a major factor that protects the germ line against the activity of transposable elements.We check whether the ability to tolerate the activity of the P-element in the early stages of the invasion can be explained by expression levels of piRNAs.