Transposition articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Endogenous retroviruses constitute 5–10% of mammalian genome space. This study characterize the bovine ERVK[2-1- LTR] clade showing that its activity varies between individuals as a function of the number of inherited autonomous elements, yet that most de novo insertions are non-autonomous elements lacking functional genes.

    • Lijing Tang
    • , Benjamin Swedlund
    •  & Carole Charlier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Transposable elements in somatic cells become increasingly mobile during ageing. Here, the authors show that in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, downregulation of transposable elements extends lifespan, and that their increases with age are coupled with progressively growing N6-adenine methylation in these genetic loci.

    • Ádám Sturm
    • , Éva Saskői
    •  & Tibor Vellai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Epigenetic control of extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA) compartment and the relationships between eccDNA and plant genome stability remain unclear. Here, the authors investigate eccDNA and structural variations in Arabidopsis epigenetic mutants to reveal the eccDNA repertoire and its impact on genome stability.

    • Panpan Zhang
    • , Assane Mbodj
    •  & Marie Mirouze

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors determined high-resolution cryo-EM structures of the lentiviral intasome — the nucleoprotein complex that inserts viral DNA into a host chromosome — and show that the architecture comprising 16 integrase subunits is critical for its function.

    • Allison Ballandras-Colas
    • , Vidya Chivukula
    •  & Peter Cherepanov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    HIV-1 integration sites are biased towards actively transcribed genes, likely mediated by binding of the viral integrase (IN) protein to host factors. Here, Winans et al. show that the K258R point mutation in IN eredirects viral DNA integration to the centromeres of host chromosomes, which may affect HIV latency.

    • Shelby Winans
    • , Hyun Jae Yu
    •  & Stephen P. Goff

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ty3 retrotransposon integrates with an exquisite specificity upstream of RNA Polymerase III-transcribed genes, such as transfer RNAs. Here the authors resolve a cryo-EM structure of an active Ty3 intasome in complex with a TFIIIB-bound tRNA promoter, shedding light into the molecular determinants of harmless retrotransposition.

    • Guillermo Abascal-Palacios
    • , Laura Jochem
    •  & Alessandro Vannini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, unchecked proliferation of Ty1 retrotransposons is controlled by the process of copy number control (CNC), which requires the p22/p18 protein, translated from an internal transcript within the Ty1 GAG gene. Here, the authors present the 2.8 Å crystal structure of a minimal p18 from Ty1-Gag that is able to restrict Ty1 transposition and identify two dimer interfaces in p18, whose roles were probed by mutagenesis both in vitro and in vivo. As p22/p18 contains only one of two conserved domains required for retroelement Gag assembly, they propose that p22/p18-Gag interactions block the Ty1 virus-like particle assembly pathway, resulting in defective particles incapable of supporting retrotransposition.

    • Matthew A. Cottee
    • , Sean L. Beckwith
    •  & Ian A. Taylor

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mobile element insertions (MEIs) are a source of repetitive genetic variation and can lead to genetic disorders. Here the authors use Cas9-targeted nanopore sequencing to efficiently saturate enrichment for known and non-reference MEIs.

    • Torrin L. McDonald
    • , Weichen Zhou
    •  & Alan P. Boyle

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Human Long INterspersed Element class 1 (LINE-1) elements are expressed and mobilized in many types of cancer, contributing to malignancy. Here the authors show that the tumor suppressor microRNA let-7 targets the LINE-1 mRNA and reduces LINE-1 mobilization.

    • Pablo Tristán-Ramos
    • , Alejandro Rubio-Roldan
    •  & Sara R. Heras

  • Article
    | Open Access

    PiggyBac is a transposon used in genome engineering that does not leave excision footprints. Here the authors determine the structures of two complexes in which the piggyBac transposase is bound to DNA representing different steps of the transposition reaction, providing a basis for how the transposition reaction proceeds.

    • Qiujia Chen
    • , Wentian Luo
    •  & Fred Dyda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In S. pombe, small non-coding RNA mediates heterochromatin formation by recruiting the nucleosome remodeling and histone deacetylase complex. Here, the authors show that fly nucleosome remodeler Mi-2 and histone deacetylase Rpd3 are involved in piRNA-dependent transcriptional silencing of transposable elements.

    • Bruno Mugat
    • , Simon Nicot
    •  & Séverine Chambeyron

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mammals lose up to 80% of their finite oocyte supply during fetal development. Here the authors interrogate mechanisms of fetal oocyte attrition in mice, driven by the simultaneous upregulation of LINE-1 retrotransposon activity and inhibit these mechanisms to increase the functional ovarian reserve.

    • Marla E. Tharp
    • , Safia Malki
    •  & Alex Bortvin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are regulatory RNAs that bind to PIWI proteins to control transposons and maintain genome integrity. Here the authors characterized their binding specificity and reveal the 5′ nucleotide bias of the Drosophila Piwi protein, through mutation of its specificity loop.

    • Chad B. Stein
    • , Pavol Genzor
    •  & Astrid D. Haase

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cytosine methyltransferases (DNMTs) often silence transposons in eukaryotic genomes. Here the authors describe the recurrent acquisition of DNMTs by transposons from two distantly-related eukaryotes and suggest that methylation of CG dinucleotides by transposon DNMTs could modify the host epigenome in dinoflagellates.

    • Alex de Mendoza
    • , Amandine Bonnet
    •  & Ryan Lister

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The declining performance of scale-up bioreactor cultures is commonly attributed to phenotypic and physical heterogeneities. Here, the authors reveal multiple recurring intra-pathway error modes that limit engineered E. coli mevalonic acid production over time- and industrial-scale fermentations.

    • Peter Rugbjerg
    • , Nils Myling-Petersen
    •  & Morten O. A. Sommer

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Transposable elements can be activated during germ cell maturation, potentially leading to genome instability and rewiring of the genetic circuitry. In this review, the authors discuss how the piRNA machinery suppresses these elements to ensure accurate spermatogenesis.

    • Christina Ernst
    • , Duncan T. Odom
    •  & Claudia Kutter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Helitron elements are proposed rolling-circle transposons in eukaryotic genomes, but experimental evidence for their transposition has been lacking. Here, Grabundzija et al. reconstruct an active Helitron from bats which they name Helraiser, and characterize its mechanism of transposition in cell-free reactions and in human cell cultures in vitro.

    • Ivana Grabundzija
    • , Simon A. Messing
    •  & Zoltán Ivics

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Microrchidia (Morc) family of GHKL ATPases are important repressors of transposons and other DNA-methylated and silent genes in A. thaliana. Here, the authors show that MORC1 is responsible for repression and methylation of specific classes of transposons in the mouse male germline.

    • William A. Pastor
    • , Hume Stroud
    •  & Steven E. Jacobsen

  • Article |

    SINEs are retrotransposons that insert exact copies of themselves into genomes. Using a marked copy of a SINE, Yadavet al. show that the sequences of newly transposed SINEs are a combination of marked and existing SINEs, suggesting a mechanism for the formation of mosaic SINEs.

    • Vijay Pal Yadav
    • , Prabhat Kumar Mandal
    •  & Sudha Bhattacharya

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