In germline cells PIWI proteins silence the RNA from
jumping genes by cutting them in sequences of ~ 30 nucleotides that will become piRNAs.
Not exact matches
They bond to proteins called PIWI and guide them to the messenger RNA produced
by the
jumping genes, which the PIWI protein then destroys.
«
Jumping genes» were first identified more than 50 years ago at CSHL
by Nobel - prize winning researcher Barbara McClintock.
As the researchers report in Nature, a minute section of that
gene mutated
by jumping to a new location.
These parasites go
by many names, including «
jumping genes,» «transposable elements» and «transposons.»
Recent research
by neuroscientist Fred Gage and colleagues at the University of California (UC), San Diego, has shown that one of the most common types of
jumping gene in people, called L1, is particularly abundant in human stem cells in the brain that ultimately differentiate into neurons and plays an important role in regulating neuronal development and proliferation.
Many cells lit up, and when the researchers took a closer look, they found that L1
jumped into several
genes typically expressed
by neurons.
Surveillance that is not stringent enough, on the other hand, would allow eggs with a lot of
jumping gene - related errors to survive, and lead to a high level of birth defects, such as those caused
by an incorrect number of chromosomes in the offspring.