ABOVE: A blind mole rat
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
Retrotransposons are DNA sequences that can move about the genome by copying themselves from their RNA transcripts and reinserting into new locations. Also known as jumping genes, these DNA elements, which may be the remnants of ancient viral infections, are generally thought to provide little or no benefit to the host and can even cause harmful mutations. However, blind mole rats (Spalax spp.) use these pieces of so-called junk DNA to protect itself from cancer, reports a study in Nature Immunology last week (September 23)—a discovery that experts say may have implications for human treatments.
“The paper describes an important new mechanistic insight into the way one can trigger inflammatory signals in cancer cells to either kill them directly or make them vulnerable to cancer-killing therapies,” says cancer biologist Stephen Baylin of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who was not involved in the ...
