原著論文"Establishment of qPCR assays for active LINE-1 subfamilies in mice and applications to the analysis of aging-associated retrotransposition"が、Frontiers in Genetics誌に受理されました。
Kuroki R†, Murata Y†, Fuke S, Nakachi Y, Nakashima J, Kujoth GC, Prolla TA, Bundo M, Kato T, Iwamoto K.*
Establishment of qPCR assays for active LINE-1 subfamilies in mice and applications to the analysis of aging-associated retrotransposition,
Frontiers in Genetics, 11:519206, 2020
Abstract
The retrotransposon long interspersed nuclear element-1 (LINE-1) can autonomously increase its copy number within a host genome through the retrotransposition process. LINE-1 is active in the germline and in neural progenitor cells, and its somatic retrotransposition activity has a broad impact on neural development and susceptibility to neuropsychiatric disorders. The method to quantify the genomic copy number of LINE-1 would be important in unraveling the role of retrotransposition, especially in the brain. However, because of the species-specific evolution of LINE-1 sequences, methods for quantifying the copy number should be independently developed. Here, we developed a quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay to measure the copy number of active LINE-1 subfamilies in mice. Using the assay, we investigated aging-associated alterations of LINE-1 copy number in several brain regions in wild-type mice and Polg+/D257Amice as a model for accelerated aging. We found that aged Polg+/D257Amice showed higher levels of the type GfII LINE-1 in the basal ganglia than the wild-type mice did, highlighting the importance of assays that focus on an individual active LINE-1 subfamily.