An endogenous retroviral element co-opts an upstream regulatory sequence to achieve somatic expression and mobility

We characterized retrotransposon mobility in healthy somatic tissues isolated from flies of different ages. We uncovered a donor locus of a rover sub-family of endogenous retroviruses and demonstrated that the activity of the somatically active rover retroviral locus was driven by its genomic cis regulatory elements, providing new insight into somatic regulation of LTR/ERV elements by their genomic environment.