Mobile DNA

The Editors of Mobile DNA and Retrovirology extend an invitation to submit original research articles related to endogenous retroviruses to their new collection: Endogenous Retroviruses in Evolution and Disease.

Retroviruses are characterized by their replication strategy which entails a step in which the viral genome is integrated into that of the host cell. Because of this, retroviruses uniquely straddle the world of viruses and the world of mobile genetic elements. Retroviral 'genome invasions' - in which horizontally transmitted retroviruses evolved to become vertically inherited 'endogenous retroviruses' - have occurred repeatedly during evolution, and have profoundly influenced the evolution of animal genomes.

The hundreds of thousands of endogenous retrovirus sequences scattered throughout animal genomes are a rich source of information about the history of co-evolutionary interaction between retroviruses and their hosts. These sequences allow unique insight into the biology of ancient viruses and the mechanisms through which mobile elements influence genome evolution and disease. 

All manuscripts accepted from this Call for Papers will be included in a unique online article collection, further highlighting this important topic. The article collection will also include specially commissioned Review articles related to the topic.

Manuscripts will undergo normal peer review as they are received. Manuscripts will be published online, both to the Collection and on the website of the journal to which they were submitted, as they are accepted. 

Open for submissions: May 24, 2019

Submit an article to Mobile DNA for the series.

The Editors-in-Chief of Mobile DNA welcome authors to send any pre-submission inquiries they might have to the Editorial Email address, which can be found here by clicking on "Contact Us" (upper left side of page). We ask that you please include “Pre-submission inquiry” in the subject line of your email and that you include the title and abstract of your proposed submission within the message. Our Editors will do their best to respond to you in a timely manner.

Highlights from recent literature on mobile elements, selected by the Editors-in-Chief.

Distinct and Collaborative Functions of Yb and Armitage in Transposon-Targeting piRNA Biogenesis [Cell Rep. 2019] PubMed

Massively Parallel Fitness Profiling Reveals Multiple Novel Enzymes in Pseudomonas putida Lysine Metabolism [MBio. 2019] PubMed

Insertion of a chimeric retrotransposon sequence in mouse Axin1 locus causes metastable kinky tail phenotype [Mob DNA. 2019] PubMed

Identification of charged amino acids required for nuclear localization of human L1 ORF1 protein [Mob DNA. 2019] PubMed

Retrotransposons evolution and impact on lncRNA and protein coding genes in pigs [Mob DNA. 2019] PubMed

View all editors' picks​​​​​​​

Marlene Belfort, University at Albany
Cédric Feschotte, Cornell University
Haig Kazazian, Johns Hopkins University
Henry Levin, NIH

In spring of 2019, we welcomed our new Associate Editors: 
Irina Arkhipova, University of Chicago
Orsolya Barabas, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)
Adam Ewing, Mater Research Institute-University of Queensland
Clément Gilbert, Université de Poitiers
Molly G Hammell, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Damon R Lisch, Purdue University
Joe Peters, Cornell University

Updated monthly, check out the newest published research on transposable elements in the TE Digest on Alexander Suh of Uppsala University's Genomicrocosm page here. 

Transposable elements labs directory
Job vacancies
Transposons Worldwide SLACK Page (Managed by Rebecca Berrens)
Mobile DNA Tools Collection
TE digest (Managed by Alexander Suh)

Royal Society's Crossroads between transposons and gene regulation - May 13-14, 2019 - London, UK
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FASEB's Mobile DNA 2019: 25 Years of Discussion and Research - June 23-25, 2019 - Rancho Mirage, CA (USA)

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Mobile Genetic Elements Conference - August 29-31, 2019 - Woods Hole, MA (USA)

3rd International Workshop on Human Endogenous Retroviruses & Diseases - November 5-6, 2019 - Lyon, France