Polyadenylylation in copia requires unusually distant upstream sequences

Retroviruses and related genetic elements generate terminally redundant RNA products by differential polyadenylylation within a long terminal repeat. Expression of the white-apricot (w^a) allele of Drosophila melanogaster, which carries an insertion of the 5.1-kilobase retrovirus-like transposable element copia in a small intron, is influenced by signals within copia. By using this indicator, we have isolated a 518-base-pair deletion, 312 base pairs upstream of the copia polyadenylylation site, that is phenotypically like much larger deletions and eliminates RNA species polyadenylylated in copia. This requirement of distant upstream sequences for copia polyadenylylation has implications for the expression of many genetic elements bearing long terminal repeats.