Faculty of 1000 evaluation for L1 retrotransposition in human neural progenitor cells [dataset]

Robert Sapolsky
2010 F1000 - Post-publication peer review of the biomedical literature   unpublished
Long Interspersed Element-1 (LINE-1 or L1) retrotransposons have dramatically impacted the human genome. L1s must retrotranspose in the germ-line or during early development to ensure their evolutionary success; yet the extent to which this process impacts somatic cells is poorly understood. We previously demonstrated that engineered human L1s can retrotranspose in adult rat hippocampus progenitor cells (NPCs) in vitro and in the mouse brain in vivo 1 . Here, we demonstrate that NPCs isolated
more » ... om human fetal brain and NPCs derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) support the retrotransposition of engineered human L1s in vitro. Furthermore, we developed a quantitative multiplex polymerase chain reaction that detected an increase in the copy number of endogenous L1s in the hippocampus and in several regions of adult human brains when compared to the copy number of endogenous L1s in heart or liver genomic DNAs from the same donor. These data suggest that de novo L1 retrotransposition events may occur in the human brain and, in principle, have the potential to contribute to individual somatic mosaicism.
doi:10.3410/f.1163828.1706079 fatcat:a6mkimur2rb2vijhe34cokw5eq