Drosophila biarmipes genome

We investigated the evolutionary tension between mobile element propagation and preservation of genome integrity. We exploited the Drosophila telomere to study such ever-escalating molecular arms races. We report the first known breakdown of this telomere elongation mechanism as an outcome of the host-TE conflict. D. biarmipes completely lacks the telomere-specialized family of retrotransposons. Single molecule sequencing confirmed the wholesale loss of active elements at this species, chromosome ends.