Publications by authors named "A M Larracuente"
Centromeres reside in rapidly evolving, repeat-rich genomic regions, despite their essential function in chromosome segregation. Across organisms, centromeres are rich in selfish genetic elements such as transposable elements and satellite DNAs that can bias their transmission through meiosis. However, these elements still need to cooperate at some level and contribute to, or avoid interfering with, centromere function.
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- Centromeres rely on the histone variant CENP-A and the role of surrounding DNA repeats is not fully understood, while retroelements are abundant in centromeres and may help with transcription and CENP-A integration.* -
- This study focuses on the retroelement Jockey-3 in Drosophila melanogaster, showing it is a significant part of the centromeric transcriptome and that its RNA localizes to centromeres during cell division.* -
- The research suggests that Jockey-3 inserts itself at centromeres to aid its own replication, while also supporting transcription in these areas, which could provide insights into similar mechanisms in other species.*
Article Synopsis
- Centromeres require the histone variant CENP-A for their function and inheritance, while the role of centromeric DNA repeats is still being investigated.
- Recent research focuses on a centromere-specific retroelement, which contributes significantly to the centromeric transcriptome and produces RNAs that localize to centromeres during cell division.
- The study suggests that this retroelement enhances the maintenance of centromeres by promoting transcription and is preferentially found within CENP-A-containing chromatin, highlighting its potential evolutionary significance across species.
Article Synopsis
- The conference on "Transposable Elements at the Crossroads of Evolution, Health and Disease" took place in Whistler, Canada, from September 3-6, 2023, organized by experts Kathleen Burns, Harmit Malik, and Irina Arkhipova.
- It focused on the diverse interactions of transposable elements (TEs) with host organisms, exploring their potential to disrupt genes and promote evolutionary changes through novel gene products and functions.
- The event featured six plenary sessions, two workshops, 50 talks, and poster sessions, covering both normal and pathological roles of TEs, as well as strategies to manage their activity through various scientific approaches.
Sex chromosomes are havens for intragenomic conflicts. The absence of recombination between sex chromosomes creates the opportunity for the evolution of segregation distorters: selfish genetic elements that hijack different aspects of an individual's reproduction to increase their own transmission. Biased (non-Mendelian) segregation, however, often occurs at a detriment to their host's fitness, and therefore can trigger evolutionary arms races that can have major consequences for genome structure and regulation, gametogenesis, reproductive strategies and even speciation.
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