TY - JOUR TI - Diversification of the Caenorhabditis heat shock response by Helitron transposable elements AU - Garrigues, Jacob M AU - Tsu, Brian V AU - Daugherty, Matthew D AU - Pasquinelli, Amy E A2 - Landry, Christian R A2 - Wittkopp, Patricia J VL - 8 PY - 2019 DA - 2019/12/11 SP - e51139 C1 - eLife 2019;8:e51139 DO - 10.7554/eLife.51139 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.51139 AB - Heat Shock Factor 1 (HSF-1) is a key regulator of the heat shock response (HSR). Upon heat shock, HSF-1 binds well-conserved motifs, called Heat Shock Elements (HSEs), and drives expression of genes important for cellular protection during this stress. Remarkably, we found that substantial numbers of HSEs in multiple Caenorhabditis species reside within Helitrons, a type of DNA transposon. Consistent with Helitron-embedded HSEs being functional, upon heat shock they display increased HSF-1 and RNA polymerase II occupancy and up-regulation of nearby genes in C. elegans. Interestingly, we found that different genes appear to be incorporated into the HSR by species-specific Helitron insertions in C. elegans and C. briggsae and by strain-specific insertions among different wild isolates of C. elegans. Our studies uncover previously unidentified targets of HSF-1 and show that Helitron insertions are responsible for rewiring and diversifying the Caenorhabditis HSR. KW - heat shock KW - HSF-1 KW - transposons KW - Caenorhabditis JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -