TEs are ubiquitous, extremely active, and an abundant part of eukaryotic genomes. In our lab, we are also interested in understanding the population dynamics of TEs. We are analyzing the frequency of the euchromatic TEs identified in the D. melanogaster genome in all the genome sequences available. This data will allow us to determine the relative importance of several hypothesized selective forces in the copy number maintenance for different families and types of TEs.
Besides, the genomes sequencing of several other Drosophila species provides an unprecedented opportunity for the study of TE dynamics. The availability of these data should allow us to investigate the TE population dynamics in both a short and a long time scale, in species with presumably large and small population size, and in species both globally distributed and restricted to specific geographical areas.