Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, QMUL, London E1 2AT, UK.
BioFrontiers Institute, Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2020 Mar 30;375(1795):20190330. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0330. Epub 2020 Feb 10.
Transposons are mobile genetic elements that have made a large contribution to genome evolution in a largely species-specific manner. A wide variety of different transposons have invaded genomes throughout evolution, acting in a first instance as 'selfish' elements, whose success was determined by their ability to self-replicate and expand within the host genome. However, their coevolution with the host has created many crossroads between transposons and the regulation of host gene expression. Transposons are an abundant source of transcriptional modulatory elements, such as gene promoters and enhancers, splicing and termination sites, and regulatory non-coding RNAs. Moreover, transposons have driven the evolution of host defence mechanisms that have been repurposed for gene regulation. However, dissecting the potential functional roles of transposons remains challenging owing to their evolutionary path, as well as their repetitive nature, which requires the development of specialized analytical tools. In this special issue, we present a collection of articles that lay out current paradigms in the field and discuss a vision for future research. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Crossroads between transposons and gene regulation'.
转座子是移动遗传元件，它们以很大程度上物种特异性的方式对基因组进化做出了巨大贡献。在整个进化过程中，各种各样的不同转座子已经侵入了基因组，最初作为“自私”的元件起作用，其成功取决于它们在宿主基因组中自我复制和扩展的能力。然而，它们与宿主的共同进化在转座子和宿主基因表达的调控之间创造了许多交叉点。转座子是转录调控元件的丰富来源，如基因启动子和增强子、剪接和终止位点以及调控非编码 RNA。此外，转座子驱动了宿主防御机制的进化，这些防御机制被重新用于基因调控。然而，由于转座子的进化途径及其重复性质，解析它们的潜在功能作用仍然具有挑战性，这需要开发专门的分析工具。在本期特刊中，我们呈现了一系列文章，阐述了该领域的当前范例，并讨论了未来研究的愿景。本文是“转座子与基因调控的交叉点”专题讨论会议的一部分。
