Transposable element

A transposable element (TE), also transposon, or jumping gene, is a type of mobile genetic element, a nucleic acid sequence in DNA that can change its position within a genome.

The discovery of mobile genetic elements earned Barbara McClintock a Nobel Prize in 1983.[1]

TEs are very common in nature, especially in plants and animals. About 50% of the maize genome, for instance, is made up by TEs.[2]

There are at least two classes of TEs: Class I TEs or retrotransposons generally function via reverse transcription, while Class II TEs or DNA transposons encode the protein transposase, which they require for insertion and excision, and some of these TEs also encode other proteins.[3]

  1. ^ McClintock B (June 1950). "The origin and behavior of mutable loci in maize". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 36 (6): 344–55. Bibcode:1950PNAS...36..344M. doi:10.1073/pnas.36.6.344. PMC 1063197. PMID 15430309.
  2. ^ Voytas, D. F. (1 November 1996). "Retroelements in genome organization". Science. 274 (5288): 737–738. Bibcode:1996Sci...274..737V. doi:10.1126/science.274.5288.737. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 8966554.
  3. ^ Pray LA (2008). "Transposons: The jumping genes". Nature Education. 1 (1): 204.
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