MBL Scientist Irina Arkhipova Awarded a 5-Year MIRA Grant to Study Transposable Elements

Scientists are increasingly discovering that some of the most intriguing sources of information for understanding genomes may come from studying how DNA can change. Irina Arkhipova, a senior scientist in the Bay Paul Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory, is investigating one such possibility, transposable elements, in tiny aquatic organisms known as rotifers. Transposable elements are highly mobile short segments of DNA that can move around within an organism’s genome, and, in some cases, even move from one genome to another. 

Arkhipova has been studying transposable elements for her entire scientific career, and her status as a leading expert, authoring over 70 publications on the topic, has netted her a Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) grant, an award focused on furthering a specific scientist’s contributions to their field.

With her recently awarded funding, Arkhipova plans to investigate the mobility of underexplored types of transposable elements not present in humans. She believes these previously uncharted transposable elements may have the potential to add to our knowledge about genome function and evolution, as well as help in genome editing and engineering.

Transposable elements can have different effects on their hosts. Some can be beneficial to their host, such as helping bacteria develop antibiotic resistance. Others can cause harmful changes to DNA, like mutations or chromosome rearrangements, while some have little or no effect at all.

“You can never guess what transposable elements are going to do next, and it's fascinating to follow whatever they do, as it brings you to very different areas of biology to follow their nature,” explains Arkhipova.

Over the course of her career Arkhipova has seen her field evolve dramatically. In her early days as a scientist, she worked in a lab that pioneered the discovery of transposable elements that caused mutations in fruit flies.

The arrival of genome sequencing marked a turning point in the field.  As scientists began identifying and comparing DNA sequences, they discovered that transposon sequences can make up a large share of eukaryotic genomes, and also found examples of transposable elements that were performing useful functions for their host. Studying these beneficial transposable elements soon became a major pillar of Arkhipova’s research.

At around the same time, scientists gained a better understanding of transcription and gene regulatory networks, discovering yet another role of transposable elements: They can be recruited to help control gene regulation. Despite these advances in the field, however, Arkhipova says many questions remain unanswered. 

“We know that transposable elements can move between members of the same species, and even between different species, or across kingdoms, but it's not always clear how exactly they do so,” she says. The MIRA award will allow Arkhipova to explore these questions further, investigating how different types of transposable elements move within, and between, genomes.