Mobile elements articles within Nature

Featured

• Article
  28 February 2024 | Open Access

  On the genetic basis of tail-loss evolution in humans and apes

  An insertion of an Alu element into an intron of the TBXT gene is identified as a genetic mechanism of tail-loss evolution in humans and apes, with implications for human health today.

  • Bo Xia
  • , Weimin Zhang
  •  & Itai Yanai

• Article
  10 May 2023 | Open Access

  Widespread somatic L1 retrotransposition in normal colorectal epithelium

  This study illustrates long interspersed nuclear element-1 retrotransposition-induced somatic mosaicism in normal cells and provides insights into the genomic and epigenomic regulation of transposable elements over the human lifetime.

  • Chang Hyun Nam
  • , Jeonghwan Youk
  •  & Young Seok Ju

• Letter | 19 October 2016

  Mechanism for DNA transposons to generate introns on genomic scales

  The observations that introns are acquired in bursts and that exons are often nucleosome-sized can be explained by the generation of introns from DNA transposons, which insert between nucleosomes.

  • Jason T. Huff
  • , Daniel Zilberman
  •  & Scott W. Roy

• Letter | 20 April 2015

  Intrinsic retroviral reactivation in human preimplantation embryos and pluripotent cells

  The human endogenous retrovirus HERVK is normally silenced, but here the surprising discovery is made that in early human embryo development it is expressed, producing retroviral-like particles.

  • Edward J. Grow
  • , Ryan A. Flynn
  •  & Joanna Wysocka