Abstract
Templated Sequence Insertion Polymorphism (TSIP) is a recently described form of polymorphism recognized in the human genome, in which a sequence that is templated from a distant genomic region is inserted into the genome, seemingly at random. TSIPs can be grouped into two classes based on nucleotide sequence features at the insertion junctions; Class 1 TSIPs show features of insertions that are mediated via the LINE-1 ORF2 protein, including (1) target-site duplication (TSD), (2) polyadenylation 10–30 nucleotides downstream of a “cryptic” polyadenylation signal, and (3) preference for insertion at a 5′-TTTT/A-3′ sequence. In contrast, class 2 TSIPs show features consistent with repair of a DNA double-strand break (DSB) via insertion of a DNA “patch” that is derived from a distant genomic region. Survey of a large number of normal human volunteers demonstrates that most individuals have 25–30 TSIPs, and that these TSIPs track with specific geographic regions. Similar to other forms of human polymorphism, we suspect that these TSIPs may be important for the generation of human diversity and genetic diseases.
Introduction
Maintenance of chromosomal integrity is required for the survival of all organisms, from simple prokaryotes to complex eukaryotes. This maintenance of chromosomal integrity is accomplished by DNA repair enzymes. There are a number of DNA repair systems that operate in eukaryotes, including DNA mismatch repair, DNA single-strand break repair, and DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair. DNA DSB repair can be further subdivided into repair by homologous recombination, “canonical” non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ), and “non-canonical” NHEJ (Chiruvella et al., ; Deriano and Roth, ).
Transfected plasmid DNA can be captured and used as a patch at the site experimentally induced DNA DSBs; the DNA patches typically show signs of NHEJ, such as micro-deletion, microhomology, and non-templated nucleotide addition (Lin and Waldman, ; Varga and Aplan, ; Cheng et al., ). Moreover, Yu and Gabriel detected mitochondrial DNA fragments at the site of HO endonuclease-induced DNA DSBs (Yu and Gabriel, ), demonstrating that a DNA DSB can be repaired by insertion of DNA sequences in yeast.
RNA can provide a template for DNA synthesis during telomere elongation (Autexier and Lue, ) or reverse transcription of retrotransposons (Baltimore, ). Several lines of evidence suggest that endogenous retrotransposons may also have a role in DNA DSB repair in human cells. When introduced into yeast, the human LINE-1 ORF2 can mediate repair of HO endonuclease-induced DNA DSB via insertion of retrotransposon sequences (Teng et al., ), through a cDNA intermediate. Subsequently, synthetic RNA oligonucleotides were shown to be a template for DNA synthesis during repair of HO endonuclease induced DNA DSB in yeast, although the efficiency of repair with RNA oligonucleotides was orders of magnitude lower than DNA oligonucleotides (Storici et al., ). Finally, a role for LINE-1 retrotransposons in DNA DSB repair in mammalian cells has been predicted (Morrish et al., , ). This prediction was based on clever experiments that showed new integrations of an endonuclease-incompetent LINE-1 retrotransposon could be identified in rodent cell lines; this form of LINE-1 integration was designated endonuclease-independent (ENi) retrotransposition (Morrish et al., ). Because these new integration sites lacked the typical features of LINE-1 endonuclease mediated insertions, such as Target-Site Duplications (TSDs) and poly(A) tracts, the authors hypothesized that LINE-1 sequences were used as a “patch” to repair a spontaneous DNA DSB (as opposed to one introduced by the LINE-1 endonuclease).
With the advent of next generation sequencing technologies, millions of germline variants in mammalian genomes within a species have been identified. Most characterized variants, known as polymorphisms, fall into three large categories; single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), small (<50 bp) insertions or deletions, referred to collectively as short indels, and large deletions (>50 bp) (Genomes Project et al., ). More recently, a smaller number of polymorphic insertions of retro-elements (such as LINE-1 or Alu) have been identified through the use of sophisticated methods to detect mobile element insertions (Beck et al., ; Huang et al., ; Iskow et al., ). In addition, insertion of processed gene transcripts into the germline have been identified and referred to as polymorphic pseudogenes (Ewing et al., ). Recent reports have demonstrated that insertions of retroelements and pseudogenes represent only a fraction of the insertional polymorphisms in the human genome (Onozawa et al., , ).
DNA DSBs can be repaired by insertion of sequences derived from distant regions of the genome in an experimental system
Templated Sequence Insertions (TSI) were first characterized using a cell culture based approach to study DNA DSB (Varga and Aplan, ). These studies modified an experimental system that had been popularized by Jasin and colleagues (Jasin and Haber, ), and employed a vector (designated EF1αTK), that contained the EF1α promoter driving expression of the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HsvTK); the recognition site for the rare-cutting meganuclease I-SceI was inserted between the EF1α promoter and HsvTK cDNA (Varga and Aplan, ). Expression of the HsvTK enzyme in mammalian cells confers sensitivity to the nucleoside analog ganciclovir; thus, millions of cells can quickly be screened for loss of HsvTK expression by treatment with ganciclovir. The EF1αTK vector was electroporated into the human leukemia cell line U937, or ovarian cancer cell line OVCAR8. Sub-clones that had integrated a single copy of the EF1αTK vector, designated “F5” for U937 (Varga and Aplan, ) or “A15” for OVCAR8 (Cheng et al., ), were isolated (Figure 1A). In an attempt to induce gross chromosomal rearrangements, an I-SceI expression vector was introduced into the cell lines, followed by ganciclovir (GCV) selection of clones that had lost expression of HsvTK due to mis-repair of a DNA DSB.
Figure 1
Although most of the GCV-resistant clones had short deletions encompassing the HsvTK start codon, rare clones that had undergone an insertion at the DNA DSB site were identified (Varga and Aplan,
TSIs are derived from RNA
The TSIs inserted at the site of NHEJ mediated DNA DSB were not excised from the genome, since the donor sites were intact, and the donor (inserted) sequence had an additional copy compared to genomic regions flanking the donor site (Onozawa et al.,
TSIs are not an artefact of experimental, induced DNA DSB, but can be identified in unmanipulated human cells
TSIs cannot be detected from routine analysis of whole genome sequence (WGS) reads, which are typically <150 bp. However, TSIs can be identified from WGS using the principles outlined below. First, the junction of two non-homologous chromosomes is designated as a “structural variant” (SV) on short read WGS; pairs of SVs that map very closely can be ascertained by inspection of SV files (Figure 1C). For a pair of SVs to represent a Templated Sequence Insertion Polymorphism (TSIP), both fusion junctions must be located within 50 kb of one another. Second, the strand polarity must align such that an insertion is feasible. Third, each end of the SV needs to be localized to a single, unique genomic loci; SV that show multiple or imperfect alignments (<95% sequence identity) are excluded. Fourth, all highly repetitive alpha satellite sequences are discarded.
The authors screened SVs obtained from two multiple myeloma cell lines (KP6, MC1286PE1) using these criteria and identified 23 unique, verified TSIs (Onozawa et al.,
Most TSIs identified in normal human subjects are polymorphic
A publicly available database of WGS from 52 normal individuals of defined ethnic/geographic groups (“SV baseline genome set,” filename B37baselinejunctions.tsv, available at http://www.completegenomics.com/sequence-data/download-data/) contained a total of 39,595 SVs from the 52 individuals (Onozawa et al.,
The investigators obtained genomic DNA from eight of the normal individuals, who had a total of 89 candidate TSIs and successfully validated 69/89 (77.5%) candidate TSIPs (Onozawa et al.,
Sequences used as templates for TSIPs
Nucleotide sequence analysis of the insertion sequences revealed that partial LINE-1 elements, cDNAs (with several spliced exons), non-annotated intergenic or intronic sequences, and mitochondrial sequences were used as templates for TSIPs identified in normal individuals (Onozawa et al.,
Class 1 and class 2 TSIPs
TSIPs can be placed into two classes (class 1 and class 2) based on nucleotide sequences at the insertion site (Figure 2). Class 1 TSIPs show a duplication of recipient sequences at both insertion junctions of at least 5 bp; this feature is reminiscent of a TSD that is characteristic of insertions caused by cleavage and insertion of LINE-1 sequences. In addition, class 1 TSIs typically inserted at a preferred LINE-1 integration site (consensus sequence 5′-TTTT/A-3′), and contained a non-templated addition of 10–40 “A” residues, as well as a polyadenylation signal (5′-AATAAA-3′) located 10–20 nucleotides upstream of the poly(A) track. These features strongly support an insertion mediated by LINE-1 ORF2 protein, which contains both endonuclease and reverse transcriptase activity, acting upon non-LINE-1 RNA, and inserting the sequence into a distant region of the genome (Luan et al.,
Figure 2

Landscape of insertion polymorphisms in the human genome. LINE-1 mediated integration of LINE-1/SINE sequences, LINE-1 sequences (which may include additional 3′ transduced sequences), and processed cDNA insertions are known to create insertion polymorphisms (Beck et al.,
Potential to cause genetic disease
There is potential for this mechanism of DNA DSB repair to cause genetic disease. Several TSIPs disrupted the coding region of a gene (Onozawa et al.,
Conclusion
TSIPs encompass several forms of insertion polymorphisms in human genomes, and are mediated via a combination of mechanisms. Class 1 TSIPs are retrotransposon-mediated events that insert polyadenylated, reverse-transcribed cDNA into seemingly random regions of the genome, whereas class 2 TSIPs are consistent with DNA DSB repair events, in which a short fragment of reverse-transcribed RNA is used as a patch to repair a DNA DSB. These TSIPs provide unique polymorphic markers, similar to SNPs and variable tandem repeats, and can be used to track population migration and evolution. Similar to retrotransposon insertions, we suspect that TSIPs, which can disrupt coding regions of the genome, may play a role in both the etiology of genetic diseases as well as mammalian evolution.
Statements
Author contributions
PA conceived and edited mini-review. MO conceived mini-review, generated figures, and wrote the first draft.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the intramural research program of the NCI, NIH. MO was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up (26890001) and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (16K09836).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
References
1
AutexierC.LueN. F. (2006). The structure and function of telomerase reverse transcriptase. Annu. Rev. Biochem.75, 493–517. 10.1146/annurev.biochem.75.103004.142412
2
BaltimoreD. (1985). Retroviruses and retrotransposons: the role of reverse transcription in shaping the eukaryotic genome. Cell40, 481–482. 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90190-4
3
BeckC. R.CollierP.MacfarlaneC.MaligM.KiddJ. M.EichlerE. E.et al. (2010). LINE-1 retrotransposition activity in human genomes. Cell141, 1159–1170. 10.1016/j.cell.2010.05.021
4
CannR. L.StonekingM.WilsonA. C. (1987). Mitochondrial, D. N. A., and human evolution. Nature325, 31–36. 10.1038/325031a0
5
Castro-DiazN.EccoG.ColuccioA.KapopoulouA.YazdanpanahB.FriedliM.et al. (2014). Evolutionally dynamic L1 regulation in embryonic stem cells. Genes Dev.28, 1397–1409. 10.1101/gad.241661.114
6
ChengY.ZhangZ.KeenanB.RoschkeA. V.NakaharaK.AplanP. D. (2010). Efficient repair of DNA double-strand breaks in malignant cells with structural instability. Mutat. Res.683, 115–122. 10.1016/j.mrfmmm.2009.10.016
7
ChiruvellaK. K.LiangZ.WilsonT. E. (2013). Repair of double-strand breaks by end joining. Cold Spring Harb. Perspect. Biol.5:a012757. 10.1101/cshperspect.a012757
8
DerianoL.RothD. B. (2013). Modernizing the nonhomologous end-joining repertoire: alternative and classical NHEJ share the stage. Annu. Rev. Genet.47, 433–455. 10.1146/annurev-genet-110711-155540
9
EwingA. D.BallingerT. J.EarlD.Broad Institute Genome Sequencing Analysis Program PlatformHarris, C. C.DingL.et al. (2013). Retrotransposition of gene transcripts leads to structural variation in mammalian genomes. Genome Biol.14:R22. 10.1186/gb-2013-14-3-r22
10
Genomes ProjectC.AbecasisG. R.AutonA.BrooksL. D.DePristoM. A.DurbinR. M.et al. (2012). An integrated map of genetic variation from 1,092 human genomes. Nature491, 56–65. 10.1038/nature11632
11
HammerM. F. (1995). A recent common ancestry for human Y chromosomes. Nature378, 376–378. 10.1038/378376a0
12
HohnO.HankeK.BannertN. (2013). HERV-K(HML-2), the Best Preserved Family of HERVs: endogenization, expression, and implications in health and disease. Front. Oncol.3:246. 10.3389/fonc.2013.00246
13
HuangC. R.SchneiderA. M.LuY.NiranjanT.ShenP.RobinsonM. A.et al. (2010). Mobile interspersed repeats are major structural variants in the human genome. Cell141, 1171–1182. 10.1016/j.cell.2010.05.026
14
IskowR. C.McCabeM. T.MillsR. E.ToreneS.PittardW. S.NeuwaldA. F.et al. (2010). Natural mutagenesis of human genomes by endogenous retrotransposons. Cell141, 1253–1261. 10.1016/j.cell.2010.05.020
15
JasinM.HaberJ. E. (2016). The democratization of gene editing: insights from site-specific cleavage and double-strand break repair. DNA Repair (Amst).44, 6–16. 10.1016/j.dnarep.2016.05.001
16
LinY.WaldmanA. S. (2001). Capture of DNA sequences at double-strand breaks in mammalian chromosomes. Genetics158, 1665–1674.
17
LuanD. D.KormanM. H.JakubczakJ. L.EickbushT. H. (1993). Reverse transcription of R2Bm RNA is primed by a nick at the chromosomal target site: a mechanism for non-LTR retrotransposition. Cell72, 595–605. 10.1016/0092-8674(93)90078-5
18
MalkovaA.HaberJ. E. (2012). Mutations arising during repair of chromosome breaks. Annu. Rev. Genet.46, 455–473. 10.1146/annurev-genet-110711-155547
19
MorrishT. A.BekbolysnovD.VelliquetteD.MorganM.RossB.WangY. (2013). Multiple mechanisms contribute to telomere maintenance. J. Cancer Biol. Res. 1. Available online at: https://www.jscimedcentral.com/CancerBiology/Articles/cancerbiology-1-1012.pdf
20
MorrishT. A.Garcia-PerezJ. L.StamatoT. D.TaccioliG. E.SekiguchiJ.MoranJ. V. (2007). Endonuclease-independent LINE-1 retrotransposition at mammalian telomeres. Nature446, 208–212. 10.1038/nature05560
21
MorrishT. A.GilbertN.MyersJ. S.VincentB. J.StamatoT. D.TaccioliG. E.et al. (2002). DNA repair mediated by endonuclease-independent LINE-1 retrotransposition. Nat. Genet.31, 159–165. 10.1038/ng898
22
NergadzeS. G.RocchiM.AzzalinC. M.MondelloC.GiulottoE. (2004). Insertion of telomeric repeats at intrachromosomal break sites during primate evolution. Genome Res.14, 1704–1710. 10.1101/gr.2778904
23
NergadzeS. G.SantagostinoM. A.SalzanoA.MondelloC.GiulottoE. (2007). Contribution of telomerase RNA retrotranscription to DNA double-strand break repair during mammalian genome evolution. Genome Biol.8:R260. 10.1186/gb-2007-8-12-r260
24
OnozawaM.GoldbergL.AplanP. D. (2015). Landscape of insertion polymorphisms in the human genome. Genome Biol. Evol.7, 960–968. 10.1093/gbe/evv043
25
OnozawaM.ZhangZ.KimY. J.GoldbergL.VargaT.BergsagelP. L.et al. (2014). Repair of DNA double-strand breaks by templated nucleotide sequence insertions derived from distant regions of the genome. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.111, 7729–7734. 10.1073/pnas.1321889111
26
PiskarevaO.ErnstC.HigginsN.SchmatchenkoV. (2013). The carboxy-terminal segment of the human LINE-1 ORF2 protein is involved in RNA binding. FEBS Open Bio3, 433–437. 10.1016/j.fob.2013.09.005
27
Ruiz-HerreraA.GarcíaF.AzzalinC.GiulottoE.EgozcueJ.PonsàM.et al. (2002). Distribution of intrachromosomal telomeric sequences (ITS) on Macaca fascicularis (Primates) chromosomes and their implication for chromosome evolution. Hum. Genet.110, 578–586. 10.1007/s00439-002-0730-6
28
SharmaN. K.ReyesA.GreenP.CaronM. J.BoniniM. G.GordonD. M.et al. (2012). Human telomerase acts as a hTR-independent reverse transcriptase in mitochondria. Nucleic Acids Res.40, 712–725. 10.1093/nar/gkr758
29
StoriciF.BebenekK.KunkelT. A.GordeninD. A.ResnickM. A. (2007). RNA-templated DNA repair. Nature447, 338–341. 10.1038/nature05720
30
SutovskyP.MorenoR. D.Ramalho-SantosJ.DominkoT.SimerlyC.SchattenG. (2000). Ubiquitinated sperm mitochondria, selective proteolysis, and the regulation of mitochondrial inheritance in mammalian embryos. Biol. Reprod.63, 582–590. 10.1095/biolreprod63.2.582
31
TengS. C.KimB.GabrielA. (1996). Retrotransposon reverse-transcriptase-mediated repair of chromosomal breaks. Nature383, 641–644. 10.1038/383641a0
32
TurnerC.KilloranC.ThomasN. S.RosenbergM.ChuzhanovaN. A.JohnstonJ.et al. (2003). Human genetic disease caused by de novo mitochondrial-nuclear DNA transfer. Hum. Genet.112, 303–309. 10.1007/s00439-002-0892-2
33
UnderhillP. A.ShenP.LinA. A.JinL.PassarinoG.YangW. H.et al. (2000). Y chromosome sequence variation and the history of human populations. Nat. Genet.26, 358–361. 10.1038/81685
34
VargaT.AplanP. D. (2005). Chromosomal aberrations induced by double-strand DNA breaks. DNA Repair (Amst).4, 1038–1046. 10.1016/j.dnarep.2005.05.004
35
WeiW.GilbertN.OoiS. L.LawlerJ. F.OstertagE. M.KazazianH. H.et al. (2001). Human L1 retrotransposition: cis preference versus trans complementation. Mol. Cell. Biol.21, 1429–1439. 10.1128/MCB.21.4.1429-1439.2001
36
WoischnikM.MoraesC. T. (2002). Pattern of organization of human mitochondrial pseudogenes in the nuclear genome. Genome Res.12, 885–893. 10.1101/gr.227202
37
YuX.GabrielA. (1999). Patching broken chromosomes with extranuclear cellular DNA. Mol. Cell4, 873–881. 10.1016/S1097-2765(00)80397-4
38
ZhouQ.LiH.LiH.NakagawaA.LinJ. L.LeeE. S.et al. (2016). Mitochondrial endonuclease G mediates breakdown of paternal mitochondria upon fertilization. Science353, 394–399. 10.1126/science.aaf4777
Summary
Keywords
templated sequence insertion polymorphisms (TSIPs), mitochondria, polymorphism, human migration, DNA repair, LINE-1 retrotransposon
Citation
Onozawa M and Aplan PD (2016) Templated Sequence Insertion Polymorphisms in the Human Genome. Front. Chem. 4:43. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2016.00043
Received
09 August 2016
Accepted
27 October 2016
Published
16 November 2016
Volume
4 - 2016
Edited by
Tammy A. Morrish, Formerly affiliated with University of Toledo, USA
Reviewed by
Francesca Storici, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA; Jeffrey Han, Tulane University, USA
Updates

Check for updates
Copyright
© 2016 Onozawa and Aplan.
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: Peter D. Aplan aplanp@mail.nih.gov
This article was submitted to Cellular Biochemistry, a section of the journal Frontiers in Chemistry
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.