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Transposable Elements Are Major Contributors to the Origin, Diversification, and Regulation of Vertebrate Long Noncoding RNAs
Open accessAbstract
Advances in vertebrate genomics have uncovered thousands of loci encoding long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs). While progress has been made in elucidating the regulatory functions of lncRNAs, little is known about their origins and evolution. Here we explore the contribution of transposable elements (TEs) to the makeup and regulation of lncRNAs in human, mouse, and zebrafish. Surprisingly, TEs occur in more than two thirds of mature lncRNA transcripts and account for a substantial portion of total lncRNA sequence (~30% in human), whereas they seldom occur in protein-coding transcripts. While TEs contribute less to lncRNA exons than expected, several TE families are strongly enriched in lncRNAs. There is also substantial interspecific variation in the coverage and types of TEs embedded in lncRNAs, partially reflecting differences in the TE landscapes of the genomes surveyed. In human, TE sequences in lncRNAs evolve under greater evolutionary constraint than their non-TE sequences, than their intronic TEs, or than random DNA. Consistent with functional constraint, we found that TEs contribute signals essential for the biogenesis of many lncRNAs, including ~30,000 unique sites for transcription initiation, splicing, or polyadenylation in human. In addition, we identified ~35,000 TEs marked as open chromatin located within 10 kb upstream of lncRNA genes. The density of these marks in one cell type correlate with elevated expression of the downstream lncRNA in the same cell type, suggesting that these TEs contribute to cis-regulation. These global trends are recapitulated in several lncRNAs with established functions. Finally a subset of TEs embedded in lncRNAs are subject to RNA editing and predicted to form secondary structures likely important for function. In conclusion, TEs are nearly ubiquitous in lncRNAs and have played an important role in the lineage-specific diversification of vertebrate lncRNA repertoires.
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![Figure 3 Examples of lncRNAs with embedded TEs. Genomic DNA is represented as a grey line, transcripts are represented by a black line, with arrows showing sense of transcription and in grey boxes the exons of the mature transcript. TEs as colored boxes (orange-red: DNA TEs. Yellow: SINEs. Pink-purple: LTR/ERVs. Green: LINEs). Only TEs overlapping with lncRNA exons are represented. See also Table S2 for details of TEs in these lncRNAs. A. BANCR [79]. B. lnc-RoR [41]. Apes = gibbon, gorilla, orangutan, bonobo, chimpanzee, human. C. lnc-ES3 [43].](/paper-figures/7056df8bdb8c4bbd9fcdd19ff30dec0c/transposable-elements-are-major-contributors-to-the-origin-diversification-and-figure-3.jpg)
![Figure 4 Evidence of purifying selection in TE–derived DNA transcribed as lncRNAs. LncRNAs correspond to Gencode v13 (human) and protein coding genes to Refseq 57 (human, 20,848 genes). Boxplots show primate PhyloP scores computed in order to compare the conservation of different sets (see upper panel). Random set is size and number-matched for TE-derived DNA in lncRNA exons. Intronic lncRNA TEs correspond to TE-derived DNA in lncRNA introns that don't overlapp with splicing sites and all annotated chromatin marks were removed (see Methods), in order to obtain a most neutral set [inactive chromatin, see 32]. Statistical test used: permutation test with 1000 permutations were performed in R. Boxplots depicts the median upper (75%) and lower (25%) quantiles. The whiskers extend beyond the upper and lower quantile by 1.5× the inner quartile range. Outliers have been removed for visualization.](/paper-figures/4d3da61116c94535af7763e2036bce40/transposable-elements-are-major-contributors-to-the-origin-diversification-and-figure-4.jpg)




![Figure 9 Lineage-specific TE insertions in cyrano. Symbols and graphics are as in Figure 3. The structure of cyrano (lnc-oip5) [14] is based on coordinates of Gencode v13 transcript OIP5-AS1-001. Vertebrate PhastCons: peaks of sequence conservation across 46 vertebrate genomes displayed in the UCSC genome browser.](/paper-figures/26778b7ca36846679b350b428c85e177/transposable-elements-are-major-contributors-to-the-origin-diversification-and-figure-9.jpg)
![Figure 10 TE contribution to predicted lncRNA secondary structures. A. High and low TE content groups of 100 lncRNA were extracted from Gencode v13 set (TE content from 96.74% to 100% and from 0.49% to 2.27% respectively; see Table S7). P-values were calculated by Randfold and provide an indication of predicted secondary structure stability. The boxplot depicts the maximum, upper quantile, median, lower quantile and minimum value in a standard way. The mean of these 2 groups are significantly different by Wilcox rank sum test (p = 0.0022). B. Predicted secondary structures (RNAfold [115]) and compensatory mutations for two zebrafish lncRNAs containing ANGEL (DNA TEs) elements. In structures, TE derived regions are marked by solid line and base pairing probability by color spectrum (from 0 in violet to 1 in red). Zoom-in windows show part of stem with compensatory mutations: nucleotide substitution are boxed and the corresponding nucleotide found in ANGEL consensus are shown under/above actual RNA sequence. Sites of compensatory mutations are marked by asterisks and written p-values are adjusted by Bonferroni methods.](/paper-figures/181dbd3585994c0aab8b29224b37a218/transposable-elements-are-major-contributors-to-the-origin-diversification-and-figure-10.jpg)
![Figure 11 Long stem in two human lincRNAs (Cabili set) formed by inverted TEs. Two examples of heavily edited human lincRNA transcripts with editing sites located in TEs. RNA structures are predicted by RNAfold [115]. Nucleotide color in structures indicates base pairing probability (from 0 to 1). Inverted TE pairs are marked by solid lines, the arrow illustrating TE strand. The stem pair of TCONS_00017795 is composed by inverted Alu elements, while the structure of TCONS_0001109 is formed by 2 LTRs (MLT2B3).](/paper-figures/d6a32eee19dc4f8a82d5b5ccb426328e/transposable-elements-are-major-contributors-to-the-origin-diversification-and-figure-11.jpg)
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“Notably, 11 of these elements overlapped with the promoters of annotated lncRNAs (Fig. 5a), consistent with the previous finding that LTRs are enriched in the transcription start sites (TSSs) of lncRNAs80.”
From Multi-omic analysis of hepatocellular carcinoma reveals aberrant cis-regulatory changes and dysregulated retrotransposons with prognostic potential (2025) · cites this paper as [80]
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“as sources of long non-coding RNAs [10]”
From The case for not masking away repetitive DNA (2018) · cites this paper as [10]
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Ten things you should know about transposable elements
Bourque, G., Burns, K. H., Gehring, M., Gorbunova, V., Seluanov, A., Hammell, M., Imbeault, M., Izsvák, Z., Levin, H. L., Macfarlan, T. S., et al. (2018) · Genome Biology · doi:10.1186/s13059-018-1577-z · Cited by 1,430
Self-citationMorris, K. V., & Mattick, J. S. (2014) · Nature Reviews Genetics · doi:10.1038/nrg3722 · Cited by 1,447
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Metadata
- Authors
- Kapusta, A., Kronenberg, Z., Lynch, V. J., Zhuo, X., Ramsay, L., Bourque, G., Yandell, M., & Feschotte, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Utah (US)
- University of Chicago (US)
- McGill University and Génome Québec Innovation Centre (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Feschotte, Cédric
- ORCID
- Venue
- PLoS Genetics
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2013-04-25
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- e1003470
- ISSN
- 1553-7390 (ISSN-L)
- 1553-7404
- PMC
- PMC3636048
- OpenAlex
- W2029868997
- Cited by
- 687
- References
- 115
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 60 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 57 · 2021: 70 · 2020: 53 · 2019: 52 · 2018: 68 · 2017: 58 · 2016: 50 · 2015: 62 · 2014: 42 · 2013: 13
- FWCI
- 67.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- PLoS Genetics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Knowledge@UChicago (University of Chicago) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- University of Chicago (cc-by)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (1126998)
- National Institutes of Health
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research (115090_1)
- National Human Genome Research Institute (R01HG004694)
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (T32GM007464, R01GM077582)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Chromosomal and Genetic Variations
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Cancer-related molecular mechanisms research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
- Keywords
- transposable elements, long non-coding RNA, lncRNA evolution, lncRNA biogenesis, cis-regulation, open chromatin, RNA editing, secondary structure, transcription initiation, splicing, polyadenylation, human, mice, zebrafish
- MeSH terms
- Animals, DNA Transposable Elements, Exons, Humans, Introns, Vertebrates, RNA, Long Noncoding
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