Establishment of Quantitative PCR Assays for Active Long Interspersed Nuclear Element-1 Subfamilies in Mice and Applications to the Analysis of Aging-Associated Retrotransposition

Frontiers in Genetics

Tomas A. Prolla¹  Gregory C. Kujoth¹  Kazuya Iwamoto²  Jun Nakashima²  Ryota Kuroki²  Yui Murata²  Yutaka Nakachi²  Tadafumi Kato³  Satoshi Fuke³  Miki Bundo⁴ 

[1] Department of Genetics and Medical Genetics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States;Department of Molecular Brain Science, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan;Lab for Molecular Dynamics of Mental Disorders, RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Wako, Japan;PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Saitama, Japan;

关键词: retrotransposition;    mitochondrial DNA;    non-LTR;    basal ganglia;    somatic mosaicism;    POLG;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fgene.2020.519206

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

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+/D257A mice as a model for accelerated aging. We found that aged Polg+/D257A mice 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.

【 授权许可】

Unknown