ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2023
The retrotransposon R2 maintains
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Discovery and engineering of avian R2 retrotransposons for all-RNA-mediated targeted DNA integration in human cells.Nature biotechnology · 2026Article
- Diversity and genome engineering applications of R2 non-LTR retrotransposons.RNA (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Review
- DNA-bound avian R2 non-LTR retrotransposon protein recruits a second R2 protein for genome-protective second-strand nicking.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Host-transposable element coexistence: a matter of resistance, tolerance and trade-off.The EMBO journal · 2026Review
- Extracellular ssDNA fromInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Host-transposon mutualism supports regeneration in planarians.Developmental cell · 2026Article
- Lineage-specific evolution, structural diversity, and activity of R2 retrotransposons in animals.Genome biology · 2026Article
- Copy number and sequence variation in ribosomal DNA and the transposon, Pokey, in mutation accumulation lines of Daphnia obtusa.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Article
- Plasticity and stringency: rethinking stem cell division modes.Biochemical Society transactions · 2026Review
- Nucleolar expansion: A biomolecular condensate mortality timer.Geromedicine · 2026Article
- Shining a light on ribosomal RNA genes, one chromosome at a time.Cell genomics · 2025Article
- Mix-and-match between transposable elements and zinc finger proteins fuels genic and regulatory innovation.Current opinion in genetics & development · 2025Review
- Cell type- and chromosome-specific chromatin landscapes and DNA replication programs ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Rewinding the clock: mechanisms of dedifferentiation.Current opinion in genetics & development · 2025Review
- Phenotypic tolerance for rDNA copy number variation within the natural range of C. elegans.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
- Genetic Factors Linking Nucleolar Stress withInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Article
- RNA-binding protein Ars2 mediates transcriptional silencing of telomeric repeats and transposable elements in the Drosophila germline.Nucleic acids research · 2025Article
- Intrinsically weak sex chromosome drive through sequential asymmetric meiosis.Science advances · 2025Article
- Gag proteins encoded by endogenous retroviruses are required for zebrafish development.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Ribosomal DNA (rDNA) loci contain hundreds of tandemly repeated copies of ribosomal RNA genes needed to support cellular viability. This repetitiveness makes it highly susceptible to copy number (CN) loss due to intrachromatid recombination between rDNA copies, threatening multigenerational maintenance of rDNA. How this threat is counteracted to avoid extinction of the lineage has remained unclear. Here, we show that the rDNA-specific retrotransposon R2 is essential for restorative rDNA CN expansion to maintain rDNA loci in the Drosophila male germline. The depletion of R2 led to defective rDNA CN maintenance, causing a decline in fecundity over generations and eventual extinction. We find that double-stranded DNA breaks created by the R2 endonuclease, a feature of R2's rDNA-specific retrotransposition, initiate the process of rDNA CN recovery, which relies on homology-dependent repair of the DNA break at rDNA copies. This study reveals that an active retrotransposon provides an essential function for its host, contrary to transposable elements' reputation as entirely selfish. These findings suggest that benefiting host fitness can be an effective selective advantage for transposable elements to offset their threat to the host, which may contribute to retrotransposons' widespread success throughout taxa.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.