Ty1 transposition in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is nonrandom.

A large collection of Ty1 insertions in the URA3 and LYS2 loci was generated using a GAL1-Ty1 fusion to augment the transposition frequency. The sites of insertion of most of these Ty elements were sequenced. There appears to be a gradient of frequency of insertion from the 5' end (highest frequency) to the 3' end (lowest frequency) of both loci. In addition we observed hotspots for transposition. Twelve of the 82 Ty1 insertions in the URA3 locus were inserted in exactly the same site. Hotspots were also observed in the LYS2 locus. All hotspots were in the transcribed part of the genes. Alignment of the sites of insertion and of the neighboring sequences only reveals very weak sequence similarities.