Exploring the functional impact of transposable elements in human cancer genomes

Approximately half of our genome is composed by genomic sequences with the ability to move from one place to another, being integrated into a new location. These sequences are known as mobile or transposable elements. Among them, retrotransposons can copy and insert themselves into a new region, in...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Oitabén Fernández, Ana
Tipo de recurso: tesis doctoral
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (USC)
Repositorio:Minerva. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:minerva_____::e84293f69014beed42b8ea9513e259d5
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10347/42174
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Transposable elements
cancer
somatic retrotransposition
LINE-1
transduction
240902 Ingeniería genética
241007 Genética humana
320713 Oncología
Descripción
Sumario:Approximately half of our genome is composed by genomic sequences with the ability to move from one place to another, being integrated into a new location. These sequences are known as mobile or transposable elements. Among them, retrotransposons can copy and insert themselves into a new region, in a process known as retrotransposition. In the context of cancer, somatic retrotransposition may have important consequences for the evolution of a tumour. LINE-1 -L1- is the only autonomous type of retrotransposon that remains active in the human genome, being highly active in cancer, specifically in certain tumour types such as oesophagus, head and neck, lung and colorectal tumours. This PhD thesis aimed to explore the structural and functional impact of somatic retrotransposon insertions, particularly L1 retrotransposition, in the context of human cancers. In the first part of this work, we have developed the “RetroTest”, a new method to measure somatic L1 activity in tumours. This tool can be applied to a broad variety of sample sources, working even in FFPE tumour biopsies, which makes it an attractive method to be applied in clinics.