FEBS Letters
Volume 582, Issue 17 , Pages 2473-2478, 23 July 2008

How selfish retrotransposons are silenced in Drosophila germline and somatic cells

Edited by Shou-Wei Ding

  • Mikiko C. Siomi

      Affiliations

    • Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan
    • Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), CREST, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Address: Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan.
    • ,
  • Kuniaki Saito

      Affiliations

    • Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan
    • ,
  • Haruhiko Siomi

      Affiliations

    • Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan

Received 21 May 2008; received in revised form 12 June 2008; accepted 12 June 2008. published online 20 June 2008.

Abstract 

Transposable elements (TEs) are DNA elements found in the genomes of various organisms. TEs have been highly conserved during evolution, suggesting that they confer advantageous effects to their hosts. However, due to their ability to transpose into virtually any locus, TEs have the ability to generate deleterious mutations in the host genome. In response, a variety of different mechanisms have evolved to mitigate their activities. A main defense mechanism is RNA silencing, which is a gene silencing mechanism triggered by small RNAs. In this review, we address RNA silencing mechanisms that silence retrotransposons, a subset of TEs, and discuss how germline and somatic cells are equipped with different retrotransposon silencing mechanisms.

Keywords: Argonaute, Retrotransposon, siRNA, piRNA, RNA silencing, Drosophila

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PII: S0014-5793(08)00508-5

doi:10.1016/j.febslet.2008.06.018

FEBS Letters
Volume 582, Issue 17 , Pages 2473-2478, 23 July 2008

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