Transposable elements and the epigenetic regulation of the genome

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Abstract
Overlapping gene silencing mechanisms function to epigenetically repress transposable elements (TEs), including chromatin and DNA modification as well as RNAi. TEs are a major component of constitutive heterochromatin at the centromere and telomere, and the regulation of these TEs is required for proper chromosome function. TEs can function as the nucleation centers for facultative heterochromatin, as well as acting as boundaries to the spread of gene silencing. Epialleles are formed due to the proximity of a gene to a TE, and the epigenetic regulation that the TE recruits. TEs could have served as the building blocks for epigenetic phenomena such as X-chromosome inactivation, gene imprinting and V(D)J recombination. The epigenetic control of transposable elements has had an important role in both organism and genome evolution. How differing epigenetic control of TEs is established in genetically identical cells (variegation) remains a major question in understanding how TEs influence the genome.