Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), which make up 8% of the human genome, have been proposed to participate in the control of gene regulatory networks. In this study, we find a region- and developmental stage-specific expression pattern of ERVs in the developing human brain, which is linked to a transcriptional network based on ERVs. We demonstrate that almost ten thousand, primarily primate-specific ERVs, act as docking platforms for the epigenetic co-repressor protein TRIM28 in human neural progenitor cells, which results in the establishment of local heterochromatin. Thereby, TRIM28 represses ERVs and consequently regulates the expression of neighboring genes. These results uncover a gene regulatory network based on ERVs that participates in control of gene expression of protein-coding transcripts important for brain development. SOURCE: Johan JakobssonMolecular Neurogenetics Lund University

Pluto Bioinformatics

GSE84259: TRIM28 controls a gene regulatory network based on endogenous retroviruses in human neural progenitor cells