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A fine LINE-1 in mouse embryonic chromatin regulation

Nature Genetics volume 49, pages 1418–1419 (2017)Cite this article

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The functional role of repetitive elements in mammalian genomes is still largely unexplored. A new study provides evidence that LINE-1 retrotransposons regulate chromatin dynamics and are essential for normal embryonic development in mice.

The mouse genome is a veritable smorgasbord of repetitive elements, which far outnumber host genes. In particular, non–long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons such as long interspersed nuclear elements (LINEs) and short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs) have been the most evolutionarily successful, accumulating to ∼27% of the DNA in the genome using a 'copy-and-paste' mechanism called retrotransposition. Like many repetitive elements, LINE-1 is transiently transcriptionally activated during mouse preimplantation development. Specifically, it is highly transcribed at the two-cell stage during zygotic genome activation (ZGA) and then gradually downregulated over the next several cell divisions. However, it is unclear whether this pattern of reactivation and silencing is a byproduct of ZGA or if this regulation has functional implications for development of the embryo. In this issue, a new study from Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla and colleagues provides compelling evidence that appropriate LINE-1 regulation is critical for mouse preimplantation embryogenesis1.

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Figure 1: Regulation of LINE-1 activation/silencing dynamics in mouse preimplantation embryos.

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  1. the Department of Oncological Sciences, Huntsman Cancer Institute and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

    Edward J Grow

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  1. Edward J Grow
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Correspondence to Edward J Grow.

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Grow, E. A fine LINE-1 in mouse embryonic chromatin regulation. Nat Genet 49, 1418–1419 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3960

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