Transposon-driven transcription is a conserved feature of vertebrate spermatogenesis and transcript evolution

EMBO Reports
Matthew P DavisAnton J Enright

Abstract

Spermatogenesis is associated with major and unique changes to chromosomes and chromatin. Here, we sought to understand the impact of these changes on spermatogenic transcriptomes. We show that long terminal repeats (LTRs) of specific mouse endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) drive the expression of many long non-coding transcripts (lncRNA). This process occurs post-mitotically predominantly in spermatocytes and round spermatids. We demonstrate that this transposon-driven lncRNA expression is a conserved feature of vertebrate spermatogenesis. We propose that transposon promoters are a mechanism by which the genome can explore novel transcriptional substrates, increasing evolutionary plasticity and allowing for the genesis of novel coding and non-coding genes. Accordingly, we show that a small fraction of these novel ERV-driven transcripts encode short open reading frames that produce detectable peptides. Finally, we find that distinct ERV elements from the same subfamilies act as differentially activated promoters in a tissue-specific context. In summary, we demonstrate that LTRs can act as tissue-specific promoters and contribute to post-mitotic spermatogenic transcriptome diversity.

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Citations

May 12, 2018·FEBS Letters·Igor Ulitsky
May 28, 2019·The New Phytologist·Lamprinos FrantzeskakisRalph Panstruga
Aug 23, 2019·Genome Research·Muller FabbriGeorge A Calin
May 8, 2018·Nature Structural & Molecular Biology·Lina VasiliauskaitėDónal O'Carroll
Nov 18, 2018·Nature Reviews. Genetics·Deniz M OzataPhillip D Zamore
Mar 8, 2019·Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. RNA·Vincent BoivinSherif Abou-Elela
Sep 9, 2020·Nature Structural & Molecular Biology·Akihiko SakashitaSatoshi H Namekawa
Jan 8, 2021·Mobile DNA·Ema EtchegarayZofia Haftek-Terreau
Feb 25, 2021·Critical Reviews in Biotechnology·Antonio Palazzo, René Massimiliano Marsano
Apr 3, 2021·Nature Communications·Lei ShiMichela Garofalo

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
dissection
cDNA
chip

Software Mentioned

RSEM
gmap
WU
BioAnalyzer
Bowtie
DESeq2
BLASTx
Ensembl
phyloCSF
Skyline

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