RIP: the evolutionary cost of genome defense

Repeat-induced point mutation (RIP) is a homology-based process that mutates repetitive DNA and frequently leads to epigenetic silencing of the mutated sequences through DNA methylation. Consistent with the hypothesis that RIP serves to control selfish DNA, an analysis of the Neurospora crassa genome sequence reveals a complete absence of intact mobile elements. As in most eukaryotes, the centromeric regions of N. crassa are rich in sequences that are related to transposable elements; however, in N crassa these sequences have been heavily mutated. The analysis of the N. crassa genome sequence also reveals that RIP has impacted genome evolution significantly through gene duplication, which is considered to be crucial for the evolution of new functions. Most if not all paralogs in N. crassa duplicated and diverged before the emergence of RIP. Thus, RIP illustrates the extraordinary extent to which genomes will go to defend themselves against mobile genetic elements.