Adriana Granzotto

TL;DR: The first genome sequence of a nondipteran insect vector of an important human parasitic disease is described, which provides critical information on the physiology and evolution of this important vector species and should be instrumental for the development of innovative disease control methods.

TL;DR: The data suggest that Helena was present in the common ancestor of the Drosophila genus, which has been vertically transmitted to the derived lineages, but that it has been lost in some of them.

TL;DR: It is shown that the NLTR BS retrotransposon has a variable copy number and patchy distribution within the Drosophila genus, that it is at distinct stages of the evolutionary cycle in the different Drosophile species and that its evolution is characterized by vertical transmission and by bursts of transposition in certain species.

TL;DR: It is hypothesized that the TE expansions occurred around the time of speciation of R. prolixus around 1.4 mya, and this suggestion lays on the "Transposon Model" of TE evolution, in which the members of a TE population that are replicative active are present at multiple loci in the genome, but their replicative potential varies.