Alu interspersed repeats: selfish DNA or a functional gene family?

Within the genomes of higher eukaryotic cells, short interspersed repetitive sequences appear to be ubiquitous, but also remarkably varied with respect to copy number and position. Many of these repeat families, including the human Alu family, can be transcribed by RNA polymerase III, and evidence has accumulated from a variety of sources that levels of repeat transcripts whose transcription is dependent on RNA polymerase III are sensitive to cellular transformation as well as changes in differentiation state. Although interspersed repetitive sequences have in the past been dismissed as nonfunctional, the discovery of the linkage to differentiation state, as well as other recent developments, suggest that the question of repeat sequence functionality should be reexamined.