Navigating the Brain and Aging: Exploring the Impact of Transposable Elements from Health to Disease

Overview

Journal Front Cell Dev Biol

Specialty Cell Biology

Date 2024 Mar 13

PMID 38476259

Authors

Anna Le Breton

Margarida P Bettencourt

Anne-Valerie Gendrel

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile genetic elements that constitute on average 45% of mammalian genomes. Their presence and activity in genomes represent a major source of genetic variability. While this is an important driver of genome evolution, TEs can also have deleterious effects on their hosts. A growing number of studies have focused on the role of TEs in the brain, both in physiological and pathological contexts. In the brain, their activity is believed to be important for neuronal plasticity. In neurological and age-related disorders, aberrant activity of TEs may contribute to disease etiology, although this remains unclear. After providing a comprehensive overview of transposable elements and their interactions with the host, this review summarizes the current understanding of TE activity within the brain, during the aging process, and in the context of neurological and age-related conditions.

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