A transposable element (TE) is a DNA sequence that can change its position within the genome, sometimes creating mutations and altering the cell's genome size. Transposition often results in duplication of the TE. Barbara McClintock's discovery of these jumping genes early in her career earned her a Nobel prize in 1983.
TEs make up a large fraction of the C-value of eukaryotic cells. They are often considered "junk DNA". In Oxytricha, which has a unique genetic system, they play a critical role in development. They are also very useful to researchers as a means to alter DNA inside a living organism.
Read more about Transposable Element: Classification, Examples, In Disease, Rate of Transposition, Induction and Defense, Evolution, Applications
Famous quotes containing the word element:
“To get a man soundly saved it is not enough to put on him a pair of new breeches, to give him regular work, or even to give him a University education. These things are all outside a man, and if the inside remains unchanged you have wasted your labour. You must in some way or other graft upon the man’s nature a new nature, which has in it the element of the Divine.”
—William Booth (1829–1912)