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Summary Viruses circulating in wild and domestic animals pose a constant threat to human health1. Identifying human genetic factors that protect against zoonotic infections is a health priority. The RD-114 and Type-D retrovirus (RDR) interference group includes infectious viruses that circulate in domestic cats and various Old World monkeys (OWM), and utilize ASCT2 as a common target cell receptor2. While human ASCT2 can mediate RDR infection in cell culture, it is unknown whether humans and other hominoids encode factors that restrict RDR infection in nature2,3. Here we test the hypothesis that Suppressyn, a truncated envelope protein that binds ASCT2 and is derived from a human endogenous retrovirus4,5, restricts RDR infection. Transcriptomics and regulatory genomics reveal that Suppressyn expression initiates in the preimplantation embryo. Loss and gain of function experiments in cell culture show Suppressyn expression is necessary and sufficient to restrict RDR infection. Evolutionary analyses show Suppressyn was acquired in the genome of a common ancestor of hominoids and OWMs, but preserved by natural selection only in hominoids. Restriction assays using modern primate orthologs and reconstructed ancestral genes indicate that Suppressyn antiviral activity has been conserved in hominoids, but lost in most OWM. Thus in humans and other hominoids, Suppressyn acts as a restriction factor against retroviruses with zoonotic capacity. Transcriptomics data predict that other virus-derived proteins with potential antiviral activity lay hidden in the human genome.

Animal genomes are parasitized by a horde of transposable elements (TEs) whose mutagenic activity can have catastrophic consequences. The piRNA pathway is a conserved mechanism to repress TE activity in the germline via a specialized class of small RNAs associated with effector Piwi proteins called piwi-associated RNAs (piRNAs). piRNAs are produced from discrete genomic regions called piRNA clusters (piCs). While piCs are generally enriched for TE sequences and the molecular processes by which they are transcribed and regulated are relatively well understood inDrosophila melanogaster, much less is known about the origin and evolution of piCs in this or any other species. To investigate piC evolution, we use a population genomics approach to compare piC activity and sequence composition across 8 geographically distant strains ofD. melanogasterwith high quality long-read genome assemblies. We perform extensive annotations of ovary piCs and TE content in each strain and test predictions of two proposed models of piC evolution. The‘de novo’model posits that individual TE insertions can spontaneously attain the status of a small piC to generate piRNAs silencing the entire TE family. The ‘trap’ model envisions large and evolutionary stable genomic clusters where TEs tend to accumulate and serves as a long-term “memory” of ancient TE invasions and produce a great variety of piRNAs protecting against related TEs entering the genome. It remains unclear which model best describes the evolution of piCs. Our analysis uncovers extensive variation in piC activity across strains and signatures of rapid birth and death of piCs in natural populations. Most TE families inferred to be recently or currently active show an enrichment of strain-specific insertions into large piCs, consistent with the trap model. By contrast, only a small subset of active LTR retrotransposon families is enriched for the formation of strain-specific piCs, suggesting that these families have an inherent proclivity to formde novopiCs. Thus, our findings support aspects of both‘de novo’and ‘trap’ models of piC evolution. We propose that these two models represent two extreme stages along an evolutionary continuum, which begins with the emergence of piCsde novofrom a few specific LTR retrotransposon insertions that subsequently expand by accretion of other TE insertions during evolution to form larger ‘trap’ clusters. Our study shows that piCs are evolutionarily labile and that TEs themselves are the major force driving the formation and evolution of piCs.

Cys2-His2 Zinc finger genes (ZNFs) form the largest family of transcription factors in metazoans. ZNF evolution is highly dynamic and characterized by the rapid expansion and contraction of numerous subfamilies across the animal phylogeny. The forces and mechanisms underlying rapid ZNF evolution remain poorly understood, but there is growing evidence that the targeting and repression of lineage-specific transposable elements (TEs) plays a major role in the diversification of the Kruppel-associated box ZNF (KZNF) subfamily, which predominates in tetrapod genomes. At present, it is unknown whether this function and co-evolutionary relationship is unique to KZNFs, or a broader feature of metazoan ZNFs. Here, we present evidence that genomic conflict with TEs has been a central driver in the diversification of ZNFs in animals. Sampling from more than 4000 animal genome assemblies, we show that the copy number of retroelements correlates with that of ZNFs across at least 750 million years of metazoan evolution, both within and between major taxonomic groups. Using computational predictions, we show that ZNFs preferentially bind TEs in a diverse set of representative animal species. We further investigate one of the most expansive ZNF subfamilies found in cyprinid fish, which are characterized by a conserved domain we dubbed theFishN-terminalZinc-finger associated (FiNZ) domain. FiNZ-ZNFs have dramatically expanded in several fish species, including the zebrafish in which we predict ~700 FiNZ-ZNF genes. Almost all are located on the long arm of chromosome 4, and recent duplicates are evolving adaptively under positive selection. Like mammalian KZNFs, the bulk of zebrafish FiNZ-ZNFs are expressed in waves at the onset of zygotic genome activation. Blocking FiNZ-ZNF translation using morpholinos during early zebrafish embryogenesis results in a global de-repression of young, transcriptionally active TEs, likely driven by the failure to establish heterochromatin over these elements. Together, these data suggest that ZNF diversification has been intimately connected to TE expansion throughout animal evolution and that families of ZNFs have been deployed independently in fish and mammals to repress TEs during early embryogenesis.

Physical interactions between viral and host proteins are responsible for almost all aspects of the viral life cycle and the host’s immune response. Studying viral-host protein-protein interactions is thus crucial for identifying strategies for treatment and prevention of viral infection. Here, we use high-throughput yeast two-hybrid and affinity purification followed by mass spectrometry to generate a comprehensive SARS-CoV-2-human protein-protein interactome network consisting of both binary and co-complex interactions. We report a total of 739 high-confidence interactions, showing the highest overlap of interaction partners among published datasets as well as the highest overlap with genes differentially expressed in samples (such as upper airway and bronchial epithelial cells) from patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Showcasing the utility of our network, we describe a novel interaction between the viral accessory protein ORF3a and the host zinc finger transcription factor ZNF579 to illustrate a SARS-CoV-2 factor mediating a direct impact on host transcription. Leveraging our interactome, we performed network-based drug screens for over 2,900 FDA-approved/investigational drugs and obtained a curated list of 23 drugs that had significant network proximities to SARS-CoV-2 host factors, one of which, carvedilol, showed promising antiviral properties. We performed electronic health record-based validation using two independent large-scale, longitudinal COVID-19 patient databases and found that carvedilol usage was associated with a significantly lowered probability (17%-20%, P < 0.001) of obtaining a SARS-CoV-2 positive test after adjusting various confounding factors. Carvedilol additionally showed anti-viral activity against SARS-CoV-2 in a human lung epithelial cell line [half maximal effective concentration (EC50) value of 4.1 µM], suggesting a mechanism for its beneficial effect in COVID-19. Our study demonstrates the value of large-scale network systems biology approaches for extracting biological insight from complex biological processes.

Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile DNA sequences that propagate within genomes. Through diverse invasion strategies, TEs have come to occupy a substantial fraction of nearly all eukaryotic genomes, and they represent a major source of genetic variation and novelty. Here we review the defining features of each major group of eukaryotic TEs and explore their evolutionary origins and relationships. We discuss how the unique biology of different TEs influences their propagation and distribution within and across genomes. Environmental and genetic factors acting at the level of the host species further modulate the activity, diversification, and fate of TEs, producing the dramatic variation in TE content observed across eukaryotes. We argue that cataloging TE diversity and dissecting the idiosyncratic behavior of individual elements are crucial to expanding our comprehension of their impact on the biology of genomes and the evolution of species.

Physical interactions between viral and host proteins are responsible for almost all aspects of the viral life cycle and the host’s immune response. Studying viral-host protein-protein interactions is thus crucial for identifying strategies for treatment and prevention of viral infection. Here, we use high-throughput yeast two-hybrid and affinity purification followed by mass spectrometry to generate a comprehensive SARS-CoV-2-human protein-protein interactome network consisting of both binary and co-complex interactions. We report a total of 739 high-confidence interactions, showing the highest overlap of interaction partners among published datasets as well as the highest enrichment for genes differentially expressed in samples (such as upper airway and bronchial epithelial cells) from patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Showcasing the utility of our network, we describe a novel interaction between the viral accessory protein ORF3a and the host zinc finger transcription factor ZNF579 to illustrate one of the first examples of a viral factor mediating a direct impact on host transcription. Leveraging our interactome, we performed network-based drug screens for over 2,900 FDA-approved/investigational drugs and obtained a curated list of 21 drugs that had significant network proximities to SARS-CoV-2 host factors, one of which, carvedilol, showed promising antiviral properties. We performed electronic health record-based validation using two independent large-scale, longitudinal COVID-19 patient databases and found that carvedilol usage was associated with a significantly lowered probability (17%-20%, P < 0.001) of obtaining a SARS-CoV-2 positive test after adjusting various confounding factors. Carvedilol additionally showed anti-viral activity against SARS-CoV-2 in a human lung epithelial cell line (EC50 value of 4.1 µM), suggesting a mechanism for its beneficial effect in COVID-19. Our study demonstrates the value of large-scale network systems biology approaches for extracting biological insight from complex biological processes.

Physical interactions between viral and host proteins are responsible for almost all aspects of the viral life cycle and the host's immune response. Studying viral-host protein-protein interactions is thus crucial for identifying strategies for treatment and prevention of viral infection. Here, we use high-throughput yeast two-hybrid and affinity purification followed by mass spectrometry to generate a comprehensive SARS-CoV-2-human protein-protein interactome network consisting of both binary and co-complex interactions. We report a total of 739 high-confidence interactions, showing the highest overlap of interaction partners among published datasets as well as the highest overlap with genes differentially expressed in samples (such as upper airway and bronchial epithelial cells) from patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Showcasing the utility of our network, we describe a novel interaction between the viral accessory protein ORF3a and the host zinc finger transcription factor ZNF579 to illustrate a SARS-CoV-2 factor mediating a direct impact on host transcription. Leveraging our interactome, we performed network-based drug screens for over 2,900 FDA-approved/investigational drugs and obtained a curated list of 23 drugs that had significant network proximities to SARS-CoV-2 host factors, one of which, carvedilol, showed promising antiviral properties. We performed electronic health record-based validation using two independent large-scale, longitudinal COVID-19 patient databases and found that carvedilol usage was associated with a significantly lowered probability (17%-20%

Arc, a neuronal gene that is critical for synaptic plasticity, originated through the domestication of retrotransposon Gag genes and mediates intercellular messenger RNA transfer. We report high-resolution structures of retrovirus-like capsids formed by Drosophila dArc1 and dArc2 that have surface spikes and putative internal RNA-binding domains. These data demonstrate that virus-like capsid-forming properties of Arc are evolutionarily conserved and provide a structural basis for understanding their function in intercellular communication. Arc, a master regulator of synaptic plasticity, can mediate intercellular RNA transfer. Arc evolved from retrotransposon genes. Erlendsson et al. present structures of retroviral-like Arc capsids as a basis to understand their function.

Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile DNA sequences that colonize genomes and threaten genome integrity. As a result, several mechanisms appear to have emerged during eukaryotic evolution to suppress TE activity. However, TEs are ubiquitous and account for a prominent fraction of most eukaryotic genomes. We argue that the evolutionary success of TEs cannot be explained solely by evasion from host control mechanisms. Rather, some TEs have evolved commensal and even mutualistic strategies that mitigate the cost of their propagation. These coevolutionary processes promote the emergence of complex cellular activities, which in turn pave the way for cooption of TE sequences for organismal function.

There is considerable interest in understanding the effect of transposable elements (TEs) on embryonic development. Studies in humans and mice are limited by the difficulty of working with mammalian embryos and by the relative scarcity of active TEs in these organisms. The zebrafish is an outstanding model for the study of vertebrate development, and over half of its genome consists of diverse TEs. However, zebrafish TEs remain poorly characterized. Here we describe the demography and genomic distribution of zebrafish TEs and their expression throughout embryogenesis using bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing data. These results reveal a highly dynamic genomic ecosystem comprising nearly 2000 distinct TE families, which vary in copy number by four orders of magnitude and span a wide range of ages. Longer retroelements tend to be retained in intergenic regions, whereas short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs) and DNA transposons are more frequently found nearby or within genes. Locus-specific mapping of TE expression reveals extensive TE transcription during development. Although two-thirds of TE transcripts are likely driven by nearby gene promoters, we still observe stage- and tissue-specific expression patterns in self-regulated TEs. Long terminal repeat (LTR) retroelements are most transcriptionally active immediately following zygotic genome activation, whereas DNA transposons are enriched among transcripts expressed in later stages of development. Single-cell analysis reveals several endogenous retroviruses expressed in specific somatic cell lineages. Overall, our study provides a valuable resource for using zebrafish as a model to study the impact of TEs on vertebrate development.

There is considerable interest in understanding the effect of transposable elements (TEs) on embryonic development. Studies in humans and mice are limited by the difficulty of working with mammalian embryos, and by the relative scarcity of active TEs in these organisms. Zebrafish is an outstanding model for the study of vertebrate development and over half of its genome consists of diverse TEs. However, zebrafish TEs remain poorly characterized. Here we describe the demography and genomic distribution of zebrafish TEs and their expression throughout embryogenesis using bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing data. These results reveal a highly dynamic genomic ecosystem comprising nearly 2,000 distinct TE families, which vary in copy number by four orders of magnitude and span a wide range of ages. Longer retroelements tend to be retained in intergenic regions, whilst short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs) and DNA transposons are more frequently found nearby or within genes. Locus-specific mapping of TE expression reveals extensive TE transcription during development. While two thirds of TE transcripts are likely driven by nearby gene promoters, we still observe stage and tissue-specific expression patterns in self-regulated TEs. Long terminal repeat (LTR) retroelements are most transcriptionally active immediately following zygotic genome activation, whereas DNA transposons are enriched amongst transcripts expressed in later stages of development. Single-cell analysis reveals several endogenous retroviruses expressed in specific somatic cell lineages. Overall, our study provides an important resource for using zebrafish as a model to study the impact of TEs on vertebrate development.

Background Transposable elements are increasingly recognized as a source of cis-regulatory variation. Previous studies have revealed that transposons are often bound by transcription factors and some have been co-opted into functional enhancers regulating host gene expression. However, the process by which transposons mature into complex regulatory elements, like enhancers, remains poorly understood. To investigate this process, we examined the contribution of transposons to the cis-regulatory network controlling circadian gene expression in the mouse liver, a well-characterized network serving an important physiological function. Results ChIP-seq analyses reveal that transposons and other repeats contribute ~ 14% of the binding sites for core circadian regulators (CRs) including BMAL1, CLOCK, PER1/2, and CRY1/2, in the mouse liver. RSINE1, an abundant murine-specific SINE, is the only transposon family enriched for CR binding sites across all datasets. Sequence analyses and reporter assays reveal that the circadian regulatory activity of RSINE1 stems from the presence of imperfect CR binding motifs in the ancestral RSINE1 sequence. These motifs matured into canonical motifs through point mutations after transposition. Furthermore, maturation occurred preferentially within elements inserted in the proximity of ancestral CR binding sites. RSINE1 also acquired motifs that recruit nuclear receptors known to cooperate with CRs to regulate circadian gene expression specifically in the liver. Conclusions Our results suggest that the birth of enhancers from transposons is predicated both by the sequence of the transposon and by the cis-regulatory landscape surrounding their genomic integration site.

RNAi and Polycomb repression play evolutionarily conserved and often coordinated roles in transcriptional silencing. Here, we show that, in the protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila, germline-specific internally eliminated sequences (IESs)—many related to transposable elements (TEs)—become transcriptionally activated in mutants deficient in the RNAi-dependent Polycomb repression pathway. Germline TE mobilization also dramatically increases in these mutants. The transition from noncoding RNA (ncRNA) to mRNA production accompanies transcriptional activation of TE-related sequences and vice versa for transcriptional silencing. The balance between ncRNA and mRNA production is potentially affected by cotranscriptional processing as well as RNAi and Polycomb repression. We posit that interplay between RNAi and Polycomb repression is a widely conserved phenomenon, whose ancestral role is epigenetic silencing of TEs.

The HML2 subfamily of HERV-K (henceforth HERV-K) represents the most recently endogenized retrovirus in the human genome. While the products of certain HERV-K genomic copies are expressed in normal tissues, they are upregulated in a number of pathological conditions, including various tumours. It remains unclear whether HERV-K(HML2)-encoded products overexpressed in cancer contribute to disease progression or are merely by-products of tumorigenesis. Here, we focus on the regulatory activities of the Long Terminal Repeats (LTR5_Hs) of HERV-K and on the potential role of the HERV-K-encoded Rec in melanoma. Our regulatory genomics analysis of LTR5_Hs loci indicates that Melanocyte Inducing Transcription Factor (MITF) binds to a canonical E-box motif (CA(C/T)GTG) within these elements in proliferative type of melanoma, and that depletion of MITF results in reduced HERV-K expression. In turn, experimentally depleting Rec in a proliferative melanoma cell line leads to lower mRNA levels of MITF and its predicted target genes. Furthermore, Rec knockdown leads to an upregulation of epithelial-to-mesenchymal associated genes and to an enhanced invasion phenotype of proliferative melanoma cells. Together these results suggest the existence of a regulatory loop between MITF and Rec that may modulate the transition from proliferative to invasive stages of melanoma. Because HERV-K(HML2) elements are restricted to hominoid primates, these findings might explain certain species-specific features of melanoma progression and point to some limitations of animal models in melanoma studies.

A recipe for new genes Most lineages contain evolutionarily novel genes, but their origin is not always clear. Cosby et al. investigated the origin of families of lineage-specific vertebrate genes (see the Perspective by Wacholder and Carvunis). Fusion between transposable elements (TEs) and host gene exons, once incorporated into the host genome, could generate new functional genes. Examination of KARABINER , a bat gene that arose through this process, shows how the retention of part of the TE within this gene allows the transcribed protein to bind throughout the genome and act as a transcriptional regulator. Thus, TEs interacting within their host genome provide the raw material to generate new combinations of functional domains that can be selected upon and incorporated within the hierarchical cellular network. Science , this issue p. eabc6405 ; see also p. 779

The accelerating pace of genome sequencing throughout the tree of life is driving the need for improved unsupervised annotation of genome components such as transposable elements (TEs). Because the types and sequences of TEs are highly variable across species, automated TE discovery and annotation are challenging and time-consuming tasks. A critical first step is the de novo identification and accurate compilation of sequence models representing all of the unique TE families dispersed in the genome. Here we introduce RepeatModeler2, a pipeline that greatly facilitates this process. This program brings substantial improvements over the original version of RepeatModeler, one of the most widely used tools for TE discovery. In particular, this version incorporates a module for structural discovery of complete long terminal repeat (LTR) retroelements, which are widespread in eukaryotic genomes but recalcitrant to automated identification because of their size and sequence complexity. We benchmarked RepeatModeler2 on three model species with diverse TE landscapes and high-quality, manually curated TE libraries: Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly), Danio rerio (zebrafish), and Oryza sativa (rice). In these three species, RepeatModeler2 identified approximately 3 times more consensus sequences matching with >95% sequence identity and sequence coverage to the manually curated sequences than the original RepeatModeler. As expected, the greatest improvement is for LTR retroelements. Thus, RepeatModeler2 represents a valuable addition to the genome annotation toolkit that will enhance the identification and study of TEs in eukaryotic genome sequences. RepeatModeler2 is available as source code or a containerized package under an open license ( https://github.com/Dfam-consortium/RepeatModeler , http://www.repeatmasker.org/RepeatModeler/ ).

Transposable elements (TEs) are selfish genetic units that typically encode proteins that enable their proliferation in the genome and spread across individual hosts. Here we review a growing number of studies that suggest that TE proteins have often been co-opted or 'domesticated' by their host as adaptations to a variety of evolutionary conflicts. In particular, TE-derived proteins have been recurrently repurposed as part of defense systems that protect prokaryotes and eukaryotes against the proliferation of infectious or invasive agents, including viruses and TEs themselves. We argue that the domestication of TE proteins may often be the only evolutionary path toward the mitigation of the cost incurred by their own selfish activities.

Eukaryotic genomes are littered with sequences of diverse viral origins, termed endogenous viral elements (EVEs). Here we used examples primarily drawn from mammalian endogenous retroviruses to document how the influx of EVEs has provided a source of prefabricated coding and regulatory sequences that were formerly utilized for viral infection and replication, but have been occasionally repurposed for cellular function. While EVE co-option has benefited a variety of host biological functions, there appears to be a disproportionate contribution to immunity and antiviral defense. The mammalian embryo and placenta offer opportunistic routes of viral transmission to the next host generation and as such they represent hotbeds for EVE cooption. Based on these observations, we propose that EVE cooption is initially driven as a mean to mitigate conflicts between host and viruses, which in turn acts as a stepping-stone toward the evolution of cellular innovations serving host physiology and development.

Thousands of unfixed transposable element (TE) insertions segregate in the human population, but little is known about their impact on genome function. Recently, a few studies associated unfixed TE insertions to mRNA levels of adjacent genes, but the biological significance of these associations, their replicability across cell types and the mechanisms by which they may regulate genes remain largely unknown. Here, we performed a TE-expression QTL analysis of 444 lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL) and 289 induced pluripotent stem cells using a newly developed set of genotypes for 2743 polymorphic TE insertions. We identified 211 and 176 TE-eQTL acting in cis in each respective cell type. Approximately 18% were shared across cell types with strongly correlated effects. Furthermore, analysis of chromatin accessibility QTL in a subset of the LCL suggests that unfixed TEs often modulate the activity of enhancers and other distal regulatory DNA elements, which tend to lose accessibility when a TE inserts within them. We also document a case of an unfixed TE likely influencing gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Our study points to broad and diverse cis -regulatory effects of unfixed TEs in the human population and underscores their plausible contribution to phenotypic variation. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Crossroads between transposons and gene regulation’.

The accelerating pace of genome sequencing throughout the tree of life is driving the need for improved unsupervised annotation of genome components such as transposable elements (TEs). Because the types and sequences of TEs are highly variable across species, automated TE discovery and annotation are challenging and time-consuming tasks. A critical first step is the de novo identification and accurate compilation of sequence models representing all the unique TE families dispersed in the genome. Here we introduce RepeatModeler2, a new pipeline that greatly facilitates this process. This new program brings substantial improvements over the original version of RepeatModeler, one of the most widely used tools for TE discovery. In particular, this version incorporates a module for structural discovery of complete LTR retroelements, which are widespread in eukaryotic genomes but recalcitrant to automated identification because of their size and sequence complexity. We benchmarked RepeatModeler2 on three model species with diverse TE landscapes and high-quality, manually curated TE libraries:Drosophila melanogaster(fruit fly),Danio rerio(zebrafish), andOryza sativa(rice). In these three species, RepeatModeler2 identified approximately three times more consensus sequences matching with >95% sequence identity and sequence coverage to the manually curated sequences than the original RepeatModeler. As expected, the greatest improvement is for LTR retroelements. The program had an extremely low false positive rate when applied to simulated genomes devoid of TEs. Thus, RepeatModeler2 represents a valuable addition to the genome annotation toolkit that will enhance the identification and study of TEs in eukaryotic genome sequences. RepeatModeler2 is available as source code or a containerized package under an open license (https://github.com/Dfam-consortium/RepeatModeler,https://github.com/Dfam-consortium/TETools).SignificanceGenome sequences are being produced for more and more eukaryotic species. The bulk of these genomes is composed of parasitic, self-mobilizing transposable elements (TEs) that play important roles in organismal evolution. Thus there is a pressing need for developing software that can accurately identify the diverse set of TEs dispersed in genome sequences. Here we introduce RepeatModeler2, an easy-to-use package for the curation of reference TE libraries which can be applied to any eukaryotic species. Through several major improvements over the previous version, RepeatModeler2 is able to produce libraries that recapitulate the known composition of three model species with some of the most complex TE landscapes. Thus RepeatModeler2 will greatly enhance the discovery and annotation of TEs in genome sequences.

Alu retrotransposons account for more than 10% of the human genome, and insertions of these elements create structural variants segregating in human populations. Such polymorphic Alu are powerful markers to understand population structure, and they represent variants that can greatly impact genome function, including gene expression. Accurate genotyping of Alu and other mobile elements has been challenging. Indeed, we found that Alu genotypes previously called for the 1000 Genomes Project are sometimes erroneous, which poses significant problems for phasing these insertions with other variants that comprise the haplotype. To ameliorate this issue, we introduce a new pipeline -- TypeTE -- which genotypes Alu insertions from whole-genome sequencing data. Starting from a list of polymorphic Alus, TypeTE identifies the hallmarks (poly-A tail and target site duplication) and orientation of Alu insertions using local re-assembly to reconstruct presence and absence alleles. Genotype likelihoods are then computed after re-mapping sequencing reads to the reconstructed alleles. Using a ‘gold standard’ set of PCR-based genotyping of >200 loci, we show that TypeTE improves genotype accuracy from 83% to 92% in the 1000 Genomes dataset. TypeTE can be readily adapted to other retrotransposon families and brings a valuable toolbox addition for population genomics.

Transposable elements (TEs) are a prolific source of tightly regulated, biochemically active non-coding elements, such as transcription factor binding sites and non-coding RNAs. A wealth of recent studies reinvigorates the idea that these elements are pervasively co-opted for the regulation of host genes. We argue that the inherent genetic properties of TEs and conflicting relationships with their hosts facilitate their recruitment for regulatory functions in diverse genomes. We review recent findings supporting the long-standing hypothesis that the waves of TE invasions endured by organisms for eons have catalyzed the evolution of gene regulatory networks. We also discuss the challenges of dissecting and interpreting the phenotypic impact of regulatory activities encoded by TEs in health and disease.

Regulatory use of endogenous retroviruses Mammalian genomes contain many endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), which have a range of evolutionary ages. The propagation and maintenance of these genetic elements have been attributed to their ability to contribute to gene regulation. Chuong et al. demonstrate that some ERV families are enriched in regulatory elements, so that they act as independently evolved enhancers for immune genes in both humans and mice (see the Perspective by Lynch). The analysis revealed a primate-specific element that orchestrates the transcriptional response to interferons. Selection can therefore act on selfish genetic elements to generate novel gene networks. Science , this issue p. 1083 see also p. 1029