The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be
found online at http://genomebiology.com/2006/7/5/220
Unlike many other organisms, Drosophila maintains its telomeres by the transposition of
retrotransposons to chromosome ends. Recent work shows that proteins in the RNA
interference pathway specifically regulate the expression of these retrotransposons and
frequency of transposition in germline cells, but do not affect retrotransposon expression or
telomere function in the soma.
This work has been supported by National Institutes of Health Grant
GM50315 to M.L.P. We thank M.L Espinàs, D. Huertas and F. Azorín for
critical reading of the manuscript.
Peer reviewed