LINEing germ and embryonic stem cells' silencing of retrotransposons

Almost half of our genome is occupied by transposable elements. Although most of them are inactive, one type of non-long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposon, long interspersed nuclear element 1 (LINE1), is capable of retrotransposition. Two studies in this issue, Pezic and colleagues (pp. 1410–1428) and Castro-Diaz and colleagues (pp. 1397–1409), provide novel insight into the regulation of LINE1s in human embryonic stem cells and mouse germ cells and shed new light on the conservation of complex mechanisms to ensure silencing of transposable elements in mammals.