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SUMMARY:Transposon addiction: endogenous retroviruses encode products esse
 ntial for vertebrate development - Cedric Feschotte (Department of Molecul
 ar Biology and Genetics\, Cornell University)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230421T150000
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230421T160000
UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/9310f1e5-ffbc-48c6-bb95-3c2343e1d543/
DESCRIPTION:In this talk\, I will challenge the ‘selfish DNA’ theory a
 nd the long-held view that active transposons are merely in conflict with 
 their host. I will argue for a more nuanced view in which transposons and 
 their host engage in mutualistic activities. Mutualistic interactions are 
 well established for bacterial mobile elements\, but scarcely documented f
 or eukaryotic transposons. We postulate that give-and-take interactions be
 tween eukaryotic transposons and their hosts are more common than currentl
 y recognized and arise progressively during evolution as an addiction to t
 ransposon-encoded products. We hypothesize that some transposons encode pr
 oducts with cellular activities that encroach on and occasionally replace 
 host functional processes during development in a way that create a depend
 ency on transposon products for host development. These dose-dependent int
 eractions would promote the maintenance of the transposon in the germline 
 but establish a form of copy number control mechanism that would benefit b
 oth the host and transposons. This model\, which we call ‘transposon add
 iction’ makes predictions that we are testing using zebrafish and chicke
 n. We focus on several endogenous retroviruses that are likely transpositi
 onally active in these species and have evolved precise developmental expr
 ession in somatic cell lineages where we predict ‘addictive’ interacti
 ons to develop. Manipulative experiments show that the Gag proteins encode
 d by three different endogenous retrovirus families in zebrafish and chick
  embryos are required for mesoderm development and neural crest migration 
 respectively. Our data support the provocative idea that transposon activi
 ties are inextricably intertwined with organismal development\, as envisio
 ned by Barbara McClintock but largely dismissed for more than half a centu
 ry.\nSpeakers:\nCedric Feschotte (Department of Molecular Biology and Gene
 tics\, Cornell University)
LOCATION:IMS-Tetsuya Nakamura Building (IDRM Seminar Room 1 and 2)\, Roose
 velt Dr\, Headington OX3 7TY
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/9310f1e5-ffbc-48c6-bb95-3c2343e1d543/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:Transposon addiction: endogenous retroviruses encode prod
 ucts essential for vertebrate development - Cedric Feschotte (Department o
 f Molecular Biology and Genetics\, Cornell University)
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