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Vibrating in the background

Nature Genetics volume 35, pages 205–207 (2003)Cite this article

Retroviruses make up a large proportion of the mammalian genome. A new study shows that an mRNA nuclear export receptor can act as a modifier of endogenous retrovirus insertion mutations by interacting with the mutated pre-mRNA.

Mammalian genomes are notorious for hosting an incredible number of genetic parasites, known as transposable elements, which can interact with the surrounding genomic environment and increase the ability of the organism to evolve. Some of these mobile elements, called retrotransposons, are able to reproduce through an intermediate RNA, using the reverse transcriptase enzyme to insert a DNA copy in the genome in a new position. Humans and mice share ∼40% of their genomes that is thought to have been derived from retrotransposons1. In humans, the activity of most of these parasites is believed to have been silenced about 40 million years ago (although we still have some of them jumping around in our cells), but mice have close to 3,000 active elements, responsible for 10–20% of spontaneous mutations2. The enormous contrast between the number of active elements in human and mouse suggests that the reason for the decline of transposon activity in humans may be related to some primary disparity between hominids and rodents1.

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Figure 1: Background influence during the control of retrotransposition events.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, 10010 N. Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, 92037, California, USA

    Alysson R Muotri & Fred H Gage

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  1. Alysson R Muotri
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  2. Fred H Gage
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Muotri, A., Gage, F. Vibrating in the background. Nat Genet 35, 205–207 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1103-205

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