RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Spoink, a LTR retrotransposon, invaded D. melanogaster populations in the 1990s JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2023.10.30.564725 DO 10.1101/2023.10.30.564725 A1 Pianezza, Riccardo A1 Scarpa, Almorò A1 Narayanan, Prakash A1 Signor, Sarah A1 Kofler, Robert YR 2023 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/11/02/2023.10.30.564725.abstract AB During the last few centuries D. melanogaster populations were invaded by several transposable elements, the most recent of which was thought to be the P-element between 1950 and 1980. Here we describe a novel TE, which we named Spoink, that has invaded D. melanogaster. It is a 5216nt LTR retrotransposon of the Ty3/gypsy superfamily. Relying on strains sampled at different times during the last century we show that Spoink invaded worldwide D. melanogaster populations after the P-element between 1983 and 1993. This invasion was likely triggered by a horizontal transfer from the D. willistoni group, much as the P-element. Spoink is probably silenced by the piRNA pathway in natural populations and about 1/3 of the examined strains have an insertion into a canonical piRNA cluster such as 42AB. Given the degree of genetic investigation of D. melanogaster it is surprising that Spoink was able to invade unnoticed.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.