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Small interfering RNAs to the rescue: blocking L1 retrotransposition

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 13, pages 758–759 (2006)Cite this article

Controlling the ability of retrotransposons to replicate and reinsert within the genome is important for maintaining the integrity of genetic information. For the first time, it has been shown that naturally occurring small interfering RNAs exist in human cells and derive from the L1 retrotransposon, providing evidence that RNA interference has a role in regulation of retrotransposition in humans.

The eukaryotic RNA interference (RNAi) pathway has a high degree of functional conservation and carries out two post-transcriptional regulatory roles: (i) microRNA-directed inhibition of translation and transcription, and (ii) genome defense against RNA viruses and transposable elements1. In lower eukaryotes, powerful genetic techniques, such as gene inactivation through homologous recombination and transgenesis mating strategies, provided early direct evidence linking the RNAi machinery to suppression of transposable elements. By contrast, before the study by Yang and Kazazian2 on page 763 of this issue, only circumstantial data implicated RNAi in suppressing the most active human retrotransposon, the long interspersed element (LINE-1 or L1)3.

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Figure 1: Putative pathway for RNAi silencing of human L1 retrotransposons.

Katie Ris

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  1. Division of Molecular Biology, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, 91010, California, USA

    Harris S Soifer & John J Rossi

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  1. Harris S Soifer
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  2. John J Rossi
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Soifer, H., Rossi, J. Small interfering RNAs to the rescue: blocking L1 retrotransposition. Nat Struct Mol Biol 13, 758–759 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb0906-758

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