A Model-Driven Quantitative Analysis of Retrotransposon Distributions in the Human Genome

Citations Over TimeTop 24% of 2020 papers

Abstract

Retrotransposons, DNA sequences capable of creating copies of themselves, compose about half of the human genome and played a central role in the evolution of mammals. Their current position in the host genome is the result of the retrotranscription process and of the following host genome evolution. We apply a model from statistical physics to show that the genomic distribution of the two most populated classes of retrotransposons in human deviates from random placement, and that this deviation increases with time. The time dependence suggests a major role of the host genome dynamics in shaping the current retrotransposon distributions. Focusing on a neutral scenario, we show that a simple model based on random placement followed by genome expansion and sequence duplications can reproduce the empirical retrotransposon distributions, even though more complex and possibly selective mechanisms can have contributed. Besides the inherent interest in understanding the origin of current retrotransposon distributions, this work sets a general analytical framework to analyze quantitatively the effects of genome evolutionary dynamics on the distribution of genomic elements.

Related Papers

• → BEL/Pao retrotransposons in metazoan genomes(2011)52 cited
• → Mechanisms regulating the copy numbers of six LTR retrotransposons in the genome of Drosophila melanogaster(2002)22 cited
• → Transposable elements and plant genome evolution(2011)8 cited
• → Non-random distribution of transposable elements in the nuclear genome of plants(1993)26 cited
• → Transposable elements ( Alu s, LTRs , LINEs , SINEs )(2018)1 cited