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p53 in the game of transposons
Author(s) -
Wylie Annika,
Jones Amanda E.,
Abrams John M.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/bies.201600115
Subject(s) - transposable element , mobile genetic elements , biology , genetics , dna transposable elements , genome , disease , perspective (graphical) , evolutionary biology , gene , computational biology , computer science , medicine , pathology , artificial intelligence
Throughout the animal kingdom, p53 genes function to restrain mobile elements and recent observations indicate that transposons become derepressed in human cancers. Together, these emerging lines of evidence suggest that cancers driven by p53 mutations could represent “transpospoathies,” i.e. disease states linked to eruptions of mobile elements. The transposopathy hypothesis predicts that p53 acts through conserved mechanisms to contain transposon movement, and in this way, prevents tumor formation. How transposon eruptions provoke neoplasias is not well understood but, from a broader perspective, this hypothesis also provides an attractive framework to explore unrestrained mobile elements as inciters of late‐onset idiopathic disease. Also see the video abstract here .