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Long INterspersed nuclear Elements (LINEs) in brain and non-brain tissues of the rat

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Abstract

Long INterspersed Element-1 (L1) is a transposable element that can insert copies of itself in new genomic locations causing genomic instability. In somatic cells, L1 retrotransposition activity is usually repressed but somatic L1 retrotransposition has recently been observed during neuronal differentiation. In this study, we evaluate whether L1 elements are differentially active in rat tissues during postnatal development. To this purpose, we quantified L1 in genomic DNA extracted from the olfactory bulb (OB), cerebellum (CE), cortex (CO) and heart (H). Each analysis was repeated on rats aged 7, 21 and 60 days. We found that L1 content in OB and CE tissue was significantly higher than H tissue, in rats of all three ages studied, suggesting that L1 activity could be modulated in postnatal development and neurogenesis.

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Funding

This work was supported by RFO (Ricerca Fondamentale Orientata, Oriented Fundamental Research) grants from the University of Bologna.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology (FaBiT), University of Bologna, via Selmi 3, 40126, Bologna, Italy

    Gianfranco Giorgi, Marco Virgili, Barbara Monti & Brunella Del Re

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  1. Gianfranco Giorgi
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  2. Marco Virgili
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  3. Barbara Monti
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  4. Brunella Del Re
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Correspondence to Brunella Del Re.

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All applicable international, national and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Gianfranco Giorgi and Marco Virgili are co-first authors.

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Giorgi, G., Virgili, M., Monti, B. et al. Long INterspersed nuclear Elements (LINEs) in brain and non-brain tissues of the rat. Cell Tissue Res 374, 17–24 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-018-2843-9

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