Applications
The first TE was discovered in the plant maize (Zea mays, corn species), and is named dissociator (Ds). Likewise, the first TE to be molecularly isolated was from a plant (Snapdragon). Appropriately, TEs have been an especially useful tool in plant molecular biology. Researchers use them as a means of mutagenesis. In this context, a TE jumps into a gene and produces a mutation. The presence of such a TE provides a straightforward means of identifying the mutant allele, relative to chemical mutagenesis methods.
Sometimes the insertion of a TE into a gene can disrupt that gene's function in a reversible manner, in a process called insertional mutagenesis; transposase-mediated excision of the DNA transposon restores gene function. This produces plants in which neighboring cells have different genotypes. This feature allows researchers to distinguish between genes that must be present inside of a cell in order to function (cell-autonomous) and genes that produce observable effects in cells other than those where the gene is expressed.
TEs are also a widely used tool for mutagenesis of most experimentally tractable organisms. The Sleeping Beauty transposon system has been used extensively as an insertional tag for identifying cancer genes
The Tc1/mariner-class of TEs Sleeping Beauty transposon system, awarded as the Molecule of the Year 2009 is active in mammalian cells and are being investigated for use in human gene therapy.
Read more about this topic: Transposable Element