One MITE to rule them all: how DNA transposons give rise to ubiquitous promoters in Xenopus

SémIdeev
 08/09/2025
 12:00:00
 Sylvain Marcellini - Universite de Concepción, Chili
 IDEEV - Salle Rosalind Franklin

Long regarded as molecular parasites, transposons are now considered an important source of evolutionary novelties for their host organism. In particular, RNA transposons have been shown to give rise to tissue-specific distal enhancers in mammals. However, much less is known about (1) DNA transposon domestication, (2) ubiquitous promoter evolution and (3) non-mammalian vertebrates. Here, I will address these three points by combining ATAC-Seq, RNA-Seq, comparative genomics, phylogenetic analyses, fluorescent in situ hybridization and transgenesis-based reporter assays in the Xenopus laevis and Xenopus tropicalis frogs.