Recent Non-LTR Retrotransposon Activity Predicts Cancer Prevalence in Mammals.

ABSTRACT: Non-long terminal repeat retrotransposons (nLTRs), including long and short interspersed nuclear elements (L1 and SINEs), are the most abundant and active mobile elements in mammals. NLTRs play critical mutagenic and regulatory roles during oncogenesis in humans and model species. However, it is not known whether recent nLTR activity in the genome is related to the lifetime cancer risk of a species beyond humans and conventional model organisms. We examined whether recent nLTR activity predicts cancer prevalence across mammals using comparative analyses of de novo whole-genome repeat annotations from 55 species, each with over 20 published zoo pathology records. We quantified nLTR activity as the number of potentially active elements, their proximity to protein-coding genes and canc

SUBMITTER: Fard VN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12424770 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature