A concerted increase in readthrough and intron retention drives transposon expression during aging and senescence.

ABSTRACT: Aging and senescence are characterized by pervasive transcriptional dysfunction, including increased expression of transposons and introns. Our aim was to elucidate mechanisms behind this increased expression. Most transposons are found within genes and introns, with a large minority being close to genes. This raises the possibility that transcriptional readthrough and intron retention are responsible for age-related changes in transposon expression rather than expression of autonomous transposons. To test this, we compiled public RNA-seq datasets from aged human fibroblasts, replicative and drug-induced senescence in human cells, and RNA-seq from aging mice and senescent mouse cells. Indeed, our reanalysis revealed a correlation between transposons expression, intron retention, and transc

SUBMITTER: Pabis K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10990488 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature