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DNA transposable elements are contiguous stretches of genomic DNA that can change the number of their copies in the genome or move their position in the genome, often affecting the activity of nearby genes. Many are inactive in the absence of autonomous transposable elements encoding the transposase catalyzing the excision, insertion or copying of the element.
It has been suggested that transposable elements (TE) play a role in tumourigenesis, but the associated mechanisms remain unclear. Here, the authors show, using colorectal cancer data and Bayesian Networks, that TEs can mediate the effect of expression quantitative trait loci and contribute to the regulation of cancer-related genes.
During zygotic genome activation the embryo must re-wire the regulatory network that sustains totipotency earlier during development. Here they identify ZFP352 as an essential factor that targets retrotransposon families to facilitate dissolution of the totipotency network and enable ZGA.
This Review discusses how transposable elements contribute to mammalian genome evolution and gene regulation through their ability to both maintain and reshape 3D genome structure.
Pachytene Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) expressed in mammalian germ lines are abundant, but their evolution and function are not fully understood. Here, the authors find that pachytene piRNA loci are hotspots of structural variation, which underlies rapid piRNA birth, divergence, and loss.
The human genome harbors more than 4.5 million transposable element (TE)-derived insertions, the result of recurrent waves of invasion and internal propagation. Here they show that TEs belonging to evolutionarily recent subfamilies go on to regulate later stages of human embryonic development, notably conditioning the expression of genes involved in gastrulation and early organogenesis.
A new study by Cosby et al., investigating the role of DNA transposable elements in exon shuffling, reports that transposase capture is a recurrent process in evolution underlying the origin of new regulators of gene expression.
A study in Cell examines the pervasiveness of a classic form of non-genetic inheritance involving transposable element DNA methylation in mice. It reports that non-genetic inheritance is likely to be the exception rather than the rule across other loci genome-wide.