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How selfish retrotransposons are silenced in Drosophila germline and somatic cells
Author(s) -
Siomi Mikiko C.,
Saito Kuniaki,
Siomi Haruhiko
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/j.febslet.2008.06.018
Subject(s) - retrotransposon , germline , transposable element , biology , gene silencing , piwi interacting rna , somatic cell , genetics , genome , rna interference , argonaute , rna silencing , rna , gene , mechanism (biology) , philosophy , epistemology
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.