The enemy within; transposable elements driving disease progression

42% of the human genome is composed of sequences that are derived from transposable elements (TE). It is well established that the activity of functional TEs leads to their mobilization via a copy-&-paste mechanism resulting in new TE insertions into genomic DNA which often affects genomic stability and host gene expression. As a consequence, TEs have the potential to cause "de-novo" insertions in both germ cells, during early embryonic development and in somatic cells. Those variants that are somatic can lead to mosaic genomes in the CNS making them difficult to detect.

Source: Neuropeptides - October 1, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: John Quinn Source Type: research