Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38593848›Full record

ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2024

Blessing or curse: how the epigenetic resolution of host-transposable element conflicts shapes their evolutionary dynamics.

Yuheng Huang, Yuh Chwen G Lee

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
11citing papers in PubMed
7.2field-weighted citation impact, top 3% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

11 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Sex chromosome evolution in haploid plants: Microchromosomes, disappearing chromosomes, and giant chromosomes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Review
  6. Article
  7. Polymorphic transposable elements contribute to variation in recombination landscapes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. The resolution of evolutionary conflicts within species.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024
    Article
  11. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Yuheng HuangDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-1586-953X
Yuh Chwen G LeeDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-0081-7892
University of California, Irvine · US

Funding

How transposable elements drive genome evolution through epigenetic mechanismsR35GM142494 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE · PI Grace Yuh Chwen Lee · 2021 to 2026
$2.5M
NIGMS NIH HHS R35 GM142494
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Transposable elements (TEs) are selfish genetic elements whose antagonistic interactions with hosts represent a common genetic conflict in eukaryotes. To resolve this conflict, hosts have widely adopted epigenetic silencing that deposits repressive marks at TEs. However, this mechanism is imperfect and fails to fully halt TE replication. Furthermore, TE epigenetic silencing can inadvertently spread repressive marks to adjacent functional sequences, a phenomenon considered a 'curse' of this conflict resolution. Here, we used forward simulations to explore how TE epigenetic silencing and its harmful side effects shape the evolutionary dynamics of TEs and their hosts. Our findings reveal that epigenetic silencing allows TEs and their hosts to stably coexist under a wide range of conditions, because the underlying molecular mechanisms give rise to copy-number dependency of the strength of TE silencing. Interestingly, contrary to intuitive expectations that TE epigenetic silencing should evolve to be as strong as possible, we found a selective benefit for modifier alleles that weaken TE silencing under biologically feasible conditions. These results reveal that the dual nature of TE epigenetic silencing, with both positive and negative effects, complicates its evolutionary trajectory and makes it challenging to determine whether TE epigenetic silencing is a 'blessing' or a 'curse'.

Indexed as

DNA Transposable ElementsEvolution, MolecularBiological EvolutionEpigenesis, GeneticEukaryotaDNA Transposable Elementsectopic recombinationepigenetic silencingepistasisevolutionary dynamicsstable equilibriumtransposable elements

Identifiers

PMID38593848
PMCPMC11003778
OpenAlexW4394593451

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.