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Breaking the Silence: How Transcriptional Surveillance by HUSH Guards the Genome from Reverse Genetic Flow
This is a hybrid event - with the speaker attending in-person and viewable on Teams.
Retrotransposition — the reverse flow of genetic information from RNA to DNA is the major route by which new genetic material enters our genome, with retroelements comprising over 40% of human DNA. This process drives innovation but threatens genome integrity, demanding precise regulation. Our discovery of the Human Silencing Hub (HUSH) revealed a genome-wide transcriptional immunosurveillance system that detects and epigenetically silences invading DNA. How HUSH distinguishes self from invading DNA was unclear. We found that HUSH discriminates ‘self’ from ‘non-self’ based on introns: The majority of cellular genes are intron-containing, while RNA-derived retroelements are intronless, marking their cDNA as foreign. This intron-based recognition mechanism uncovers an unexpected innate immune surveillance system that protects the genome from the reverse flow of genetic information.
Date:
29 January 2026, 12:00
Venue:
MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Headington OX3 9DS
Venue Details:
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Speaker:
Professor Paul Lehner (Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease, University of Cambridge)
Organising department:
MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine
Organiser:
Yasmine Saito (Weatherall Institute, University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
seminar.admin@imm.ox.ac.uk
Host:
Prof Simon Davis (MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford)
Part of:
WIMM THURSDAY SEMINARS
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Yasmine Saito
