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DRIVER OF NEW SPECIES. “It has long been hypothesized that TEs could drive host diversification, reinforce population divergence, and promote reproductive isolation (for instance through processes akin to hybrid dysgenesis), ultimately leading to speciation.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959437X17301685 View in LinkedIn

VIRAL IMPACT ON EVOLUTION. “Recent large-scale analyses suggest that HTT is pervasive in plants and animals and instrumental to the long-term evolutionary persistence of most types of TE.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959437X17301685 View in LinkedIn

TOO MUCH JARGON. The key for the remainder of today’s posts. (ERV= Endogenous retroviruses); (TE = transposable elements, jumping genes); (HT = horizontal transfer); (HTT = horizontal transfer of TEs). View in LinkedIn

FOREIGN GENE CONTRIBUTION. “In insects for example, it was estimated that ∼2% of the nuclear genome on average (and up to 24%) derives from horizontally-transferred TEs, a figure that likely remains a gross underestimate. The picture is similar in bats where at least 6% of the Myotis lucifugus genome derives from horizontally-acquired Helitrons.” (TE = transposable elements, jumping genes). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959437X17301685 View in LinkedIn

INNOVATION AND MALFUNCTION. “Numerous studies in mammalian genomes showing how ERV-derived sequences have been a recurrent source of new coding or regulatory sequences promoting a multitude of cellular functions as well as dysfunctions.” (ERV= Endogenous retroviruses). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959437X17301685 View in LinkedIn

NON-VERTICAL TRANSFER. “Because HT is often responsible for the initial colonization of genomes by TEs, HT must be regarded as an important process in eukaryotic evolution.” (TE = transposable elements, jumping genes); (HT = horizontal transfer). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959437X17301685 View in LinkedIn

FACE OF JANUS. “TEs have shaped eukaryotic genomes deeply and in myriads ways. Their movement and repetitive nature represent a potent source of genomic variation and genetic disorders.” (TE = transposable elements, jumping genes). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959437X17301685 View in LinkedIn

FACILITATED TRANSFER. “An increasing number of HTT events have been inferred to have occurred between parasites and their hosts, such as between blood-feeding insects and vertebrates, lampreys and teleost fishes, or nematodes and birds.” (HTT = horizontal transfer of jumping genes, TEs). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959437X17301685 View in LinkedIn

DRIVEN BY JUMPING GENES. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to escape the conclusion that eukaryotic genome evolution is driven from within not just by the gentle breeze of the genetic mechanisms that replicate and repair DNA, but by the stronger winds (with perhaps occasional gale-force gusts) of transposon activity. The ability to evoke rapid genome restructuring is at the heart of eukaryotic evolvability—the capacity of organisms with larger and larger genomes to maintain evolutionary flexibility.” http://science.sciencemag.org/content/338/6108/758 View in LinkedIn

INVITATION TO JUMPING GENES. “Thus, responses to stress—whether from pathogens, environmental extremes, or damage to the genetic apparatus—evoke not just a transcriptional response, but also a profound and to some extent heritable change in the epigenetic framework. Such changes can loosen the epigenetic constraints on transposons, allowing stress-inducible TEs to propagate stress-inducible promoters to other genes through transposition.” http://science.sciencemag.org/content/338/6108/758 View in LinkedIn