Intermittent Fasting Rewires Tissue-Specific Gene-Transposable Element Regulatory Networks

Functional enrichment of genes proximal to co-expressed TEs within these modules highlighted clear tissue-specific regulatory programs. In the liver, the enriched terms were predominantly associated with translation and metabolism, whereas in skeletal muscle, the enriched pathways were involved in muscle contraction, mitochondrial organization, and chromatin modification. Furthermore, correlation analysis revealed strong, significant co-expression between TEs and their proximal genes within these modules, suggesting that TEs may exert potential cis-regulatory effects on adjacent genes.

Taken together, our results provide a high‑resolution atlas of TE regulation under IF and demonstrate that TEs are integral components of tissue‑specific transcriptional networks reshaped by fasting. These findings offer new insights into how dietary interventions influence gene regulatory systems.