Figure 4: GBM microvesicles are enriched for retrotransposon elements.
From: Tumour microvesicles contain retrotransposon elements and amplified oncogene sequences
The levels of transposon and retrotransposon sequences were compared with the rest of the RNA transcriptome in cells and microvesicles. ExoRNA and cellular RNA were isolated from GBM 20/3 cells and analysed on an Agilent two-color 44k array. (a) Relative levels of all represented RNA sequences (44,000 RNA probes) in cells and microvesicles were evaluated with an MA plot; y axis M=log2Exo–log2Cell, x axis A=0.5× (log2Exo+log2Cell). RNA intensities from capture probes aligning to (b) DNA transposons, (c) L1, (d) HERV and (e) Alu sequences were extracted and plotted on separate MA plots. (f) Identification of members of the HERV families enriched more than 16-fold in the microvesicles (M≥4). Some HERV families are represented more than once on the array.
