Transposition of copia-like nomadic elements can be induced by heat shock

Four males of an isogenic gt wa Drosophila line were heat shocked and then crossed with isogenic untreated females. The genomic distributions of the elements of five copia-like families were analyzed in the four F1 flies by the Southern technique and compared with those in the untreated isogenic line. The pattern heterogeneity observed in the F1 samples shows that extensive rearrangements can be induced by heat shock.