title: Transposable elements and tumor progression.
abstract: Although the concept that transposable elements (TEs) have the potential to enhance their host genomic evolution is widely accepted, it is still generally assumed that TEs primarily owe their prosperity to replicative advantage because the immediate effects on their hosts are generally harmful. To mitigate deleterious impact, hosts employ a cosuppression strategy to tame these perilous elements. The peculiarity of this strategy, however, is that TEs, as targets of suppression, also serve as primary components of this 'TE immune system'. Based on this view, we propose a possible mechanism whereby TEs are involved in tumor progression.
authors.affiliation: Developmental Biology Lab, Institute of Genetics, Fudan University, ShangHai, China.
authors.forename: T H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Deng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015687:Cell Hypoxia; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000235:genetics; D019175:DNA Methylation; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D018450:Disease Progression; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D008322:Mammals / Q000235:genetics; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements