FLICKR, TATIANA VDBDuring the evolution of pregnancy, thousands of transposons—pieces of DNA that copy and reinsert themselves throughout the genome—migrated to regulate the expression of pregnancy-related genes, according to a paper published today (January 29) in Cell Reports. Genes involved in responding to hormones, maternal-fetal communication, and immune tolerance increased in expression, while expression decreased for genes involved in ion transport, which is essential for the formation of mineralized eggshells.
“It seems that we’re getting closer to an understanding of the major events that occurred in the evolution of mammalian pregnancy,” said Derek Wildman, a professor of molecular and integrative physiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who was not involved in the study.
This work “adds to the evidence that transposable elements are major forces of evolution and rapid evolution, particularly in the reproductive organs,” said Julie Baker, a geneticist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, who also was not involved in the study. “I think we’re going to see a lot more attention paid to the evolution of transposable elements and their function.”
Researchers from the University of Chicago and their colleagues first sequenced RNA expressed in the uteruses of animals ...
