Welcome to TEITbase!

TEITbase is a comprehensive database designed to systematically study the transposable element (TE)-initiated transcription across 33 cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile genetic elements that are widespread in eukaryotic genomes. As alternative promoters, TE can promote their own transcription or regulate the expression of neighboring genes, producing TE-initiated transcripts with TE-derived transcription start sites (TSSs). In caner, TE-initiated transcription may upregulate the expression of oncogenes (known as onco-exaptation) and generate tumor-specific antigens, which serve as potential targets for immunotherapy. Here, we developed the TEITbase to provide detailed insights into 38,995 expressed TE-initiated transcripts (GRCh38) across various cancer types, offering data at both the TE family and transcript levels.

In TEITbase, users can:

1. Browse the basic information of 1,027 TE families and 38,995 expressed TE-initiated transcripts;

2. Search a gene symbol or TE family to identify associated TE-initiated transcripts;

3. Browse the basic information of 6,203 tumor-specific TE-initiated transcripts;

4. Browse or search in a cancer type to identify survival-associated, stage-associated and differential expressed TE-initiated transcripts (or TE families);

5. Perform the correlation analysis between specific TE-initiated transcript (or TE family) and protein-coding genes, and explore its potential function by Reactome enrichment analysis of positively correlated genes.

6. Download all results of analysis, figures of querying, and expression matrices for further integrative study.