Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Developmental biology

Jumping-gene roulette

Jumping genes, which make DNA copies of themselves through an RNA middleman, provide a stochastic process for generating brain diversity among humans. The effect of their random insertion, however, is a bit of a gamble.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Human brain variation by retrotransposition.

References

  1. Coufal, N. G. et al. Nature 460, 1127–1131 (2009).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Han, J. S. & Boeke, J. D. BioEssays 27, 775–784 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Goodier, J. L. & Kazazian, H. H. Jr Cell 135, 23–35 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Muotri, A. R. et al. Nature 435, 903–910 (2005).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Sohur, U. S., Emsley, J. G., Mitchell, B. D. & Macklis, J. D. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 361, 1477–1497 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Houweling, A. R. & Brecht, M. Nature 451, 65–68 (2008).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Li, C. Y., Poo, M. M. & Dan, Y. Science 324, 643–646 (2009).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Rotenberg, A. et al. Cell 87, 1351–1361 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Seleme, M. C. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 103, 6611–6616 (2006).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Martin, S. Jumping-gene roulette. Nature 460, 1087–1088 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/4601087a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/4601087a

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing