Role of LINEs and their binding proteins in brain evolution

A large proportion of mammalian genome is made up of retrotransposons. LINEs are a major class of retrotransposable elements and their functional roles are still poorly understood. Previous data from the Ule lab has identified a series of RNA binding proteins which are likely to be important regulators of LINE derived transcripts, but about which almost nothing is known. This project will focus on how LINEs and their binding proteins influence cellular decision making, particularly of cell fate decisions in brain development. We hypothesise that variation in LINEs between species has contributed to their divergent speciation.