MINI REVIEW article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Virus and Host
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Role of DNA Viruses in Human Cancers Volume IIView all 4 articles
Transposons Disrupt Genomic Stability and trigger cancers
Provisionally accepted
- 1Zhengzhou Health College, Zhengzhou, China
- 2Henan University, Kaifeng, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Transposons (TEs) are genetic elements that can change their positions within genome. They cause transcriptional activation or repression by inserting into regulatory elements of related genes or by modulating epigenetic modifications on regulatory elements. In addition, some transposons encode and express peptides or proteins that affect or disrupt the cellular biological functions. Recent studies have demonstrated that while host cells effectively control most transposons, certain harmful insertions can disrupt normal gene expression processes, potentially leading to diseases. In this mini-review, we discuss recent advances in understanding how transposons contribute to genomic instability. We hope to provide researchers and clinical practitioners with new insights into transposon biology and its potential implications for disease pathogenesis.
Keywords: transposons, genomic stability, regulation, insert, Cancer
Received: 12 Sep 2025; Accepted: 27 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Weixia, Li, Li, Hou, He and Ji. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Fei He
Shaoping Ji
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.