Warning SINEs: Alu elements, evolution of the human brain, and the spectrum of neurological disease.

ABSTRACT: Alu elements are a highly successful family of primate-specific retrotransposons that have fundamentally shaped primate evolution, including the evolution of our own species. Alus play critical roles in the formation of neurological networks and the epigenetic regulation of biochemical processes throughout the central nervous system (CNS), and thus are hypothesized to have contributed to the origin of human cognition. Despite the benefits that Alus provide, deleterious Alu activity is associated with a number of neurological and neurodegenerative disorders. In particular, neurological networks are potentially vulnerable to the epigenetic dysregulation of Alu elements operating across the suite of nuclear-encoded mitochondrial genes that are critical for both mitochondrial and CNS function.

SUBMITTER: Larsen PA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5857278 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature