Transposable Element Interaction and Its Impact on Human Development and Health

转座元件相互作用及其对人类发育和健康的影响

• 批准号: 10705110
• 负责人: Bo Xia
• 金额: $ 36.42万
• 依托单位: BROAD INSTITUTE, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-15 至 2027-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10705110
• 关键词: Affect; Algorithms; Alternative Splicing; Alu Elements; Anatomy; Animal Model; Back Pain; Base Pairing; Biological; Biology; Brachyury protein; Chemistry; Code; Communities; Comparative Genomic Analysis; Congenital Abnormality; Creativeness; Custom; DNA Transposable Elements; Data; Dedications; Developmental Biology; Disease; Doctor of Philosophy; Elements; Embryonic Development; Ensure; Equipment; Etiology; Evolution; Exons; Faculty; Fellowship; Funding; Gene Expression Regulation; Genes; Genetic; Genetic Diseases; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genome; Genomics; Grant; Health; Hindlimb; Human; Human Development; Human Genetics; Human Genome; Human Genome Project; Incidence; Individual; Institution; Introns; Junk DNA; Knee Osteoarthritis; Laboratories; Leadership; Limb Development; Locomotion; Mentors; Modeling; Modernization; Neural Tube Defects; Neural Tube Development; Neurons; Pongidae; Price; Primates; Principal Investigator; Protein Isoforms; Proteins; Publishing; RNA Splicing; Recording of previous events; Research; Retrotransposon; Science; Spinal Dysraphism; Systems Biology; Tail; Testing; Therapeutic; Training; Work; Writing; experience; gene function; human disease; human genomics; innovation; mRNA Precursor; meetings; multidisciplinary; neonate; novel; prevent; success; technology development

PROJECT SUMMARY One of the most surprising discoveries from the Human Genome Project is that only about 1.5% of the genome codes for proteins, whereas around 46% comprises transposable elements (TEs). Functional assessment of how these ubiquitous TEs affect human development and health has posed a major challenge. While most TEs are considered non-functional, or “junk” DNA, here I argue that TE-induced gene regulation is strongly underestimated due to the historical tendency to explore TE functionality by studying individual TEs independently of each other. I propose to provide a novel framework to study how interactions between the hitherto “junk” TE sequences can regulate pre-mRNA splicing to affect gene function, and investigate whether such a mechanism could substantially affect both human development and evolution, and help explain the genetic etiology of human diseases. This proposal is inspired from my recent discovery that the interaction between a pair of Alu retrotransposons may explain the long-sought genetic basis for the evolution of tail loss in human and apes. Based on this work and my preliminary data, I will first use the Alu pair interaction in TBXT gene as a model to demonstrate that the interaction between intronic TEs can profoundly impact human development and health, and explain the etiology of a common genetic disease (Aim 1). Aim 2 proposes to test the hypothesis that the isoform of TBXT induced by interaction of the Alu pair pleiotropically contributes to strengthening of hindlimbs, thus directly testing the long-standing hypothesis that the tail-loss evolution in hominoids is associated with bipedal locomotion evolution (Aim 2). Beyond the specific interaction of the Alu pair in the TBXT gene, Aim 3 will develop an algorithm called TEILO (Transposable Element Interaction & Local Organization) to systematically identify the functional TE interactions that affect gene function and human health by modulating alternative splicing. This work promises to provide a new paradigm to studying the interaction between TEs and its implication to human health and diseases.

项目概要 人类基因组计划最令人惊讶的发现之一是，只有约 1.5% 的基因组 编码蛋白质，而大约 46% 包含转座元件 (TE)。功能评估 这些无处不在的TE如何影响人类发展和健康提出了重大挑战。虽然大多数 TE 被认为是非功能性的，或“垃圾”DNA，在这里我认为 TE 诱导的基因调控是强烈的 由于历史趋势是通过研究单个 TE 来探索 TE 功能，因此被低估 彼此独立。我建议提供一个新颖的框架来研究 迄今为止的“垃圾”TE 序列可以调节前 mRNA 剪接以影响基因功能，并研究是否 这种机制可以极大地影响人类的发展和进化，并有助于解释 人类疾病的遗传病因学。这个提议的灵感来自于我最近的发现，即交互 一对 Alu 逆转录转座子之间的差异可能可以解释长期以来寻找的尾部丢失进化的遗传基础。 人类和猿类。根据这项工作和我的初步数据，我将首先在 TBXT 中使用 Alu 对交互 基因作为模型来证明内含子 TE 之间的相互作用可以深刻影响人类 发育和健康，并解释常见遗传病的病因（目标 1）。目标 2 建议进行测试 假设 Alu 对相互作用诱导的 TBXT 亚型具有多效性 加强后肢，从而直接检验长期存在的假设，即尾部丢失进化 类人猿与双足运动进化相关（目标 2）。超越铝对的特定相互作用 在TBXT基因中，Aim 3将开发一种名为TEILO（Transposable Element Interaction & Local）的算法 组织）系统地识别影响基因功能和人类健康的功能性 TE 相互作用 通过调节选择性剪接。这项工作有望为研究相互作用提供一个新的范式 TE 之间的关系及其对人类健康和疾病的影响。