A novel approach to identification of somatic retroelements’ insertions in human genome

The activity of retroelements is one of the factors leading to genetic variability of the modern humans. Insertions of retroelements may result in alteration of gene expression and functional diversity between cells. In recent years an increasing amount of data indicating an elevated level of retroelements’ mobilisation in some human and animal tissues has been reported. Therefore, the development of a system for the detection of somatic retroposition events is required. Here we describe a novel approach to the whole-genome identification of somatic retroelement insertions in human genome. The developed approach was applied for the comparisons of somatic mosaicism levels in two tissues of the investigated individual. A total of 3410 insertions of retroelements belonging to AluYa5 subfamily were identified.