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Transposable Elements

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Sohail Ahmad Shah
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50 views

Transposable Elements

Uploaded by

Sohail Ahmad Shah
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Transposable Elements (TE) or Jumping Genes

It may also known as Mobile Genetic Elements. Transposable elements or jumping genes are DNA
sequences that can change its position within a genome. TE move/jump from one location to another so
called Jumping genes. Transposable genetic elements is a series of genetic information can occasionally
move or transpose from one position on a chromosomes to another one the same chromosome or on a
different chromosome. Transposons were first discovered in Cornwall maize during the 1940 and 50s by
an American scientist Barbara McClintock whose won her the Nobel prise for physiology and Medicines
in 1983.

Characteristics of transposable elements

Some salient features of transposable elements are:

1)These are the DNA sequences that code for enzymes which result in self-duplication and insertion into
a new DNA site.

2)Transposons are involved in transposition events which include both recombination and replication,
which usually generates two copies of the original transposable elements. One of the copies remains at
the parent site, whereas the other one reaches the target site on the host chromosome.

3)The integrity of the target genes of these elements is invariably disrupted by the presence of those
elements.

4)Because transposons carry the genes for initiation of RNA synthesis, some previously dormant genes
might be activated.

5)A transposable element doesn’t have a site for the origin of replication. As a result, it cannot replicate
without the host chromosome as plasmids or phages.

Types of Transposable elements

Transposable elements are of the following two types:

1)Insertion Sequences (IS) or Simple Transposons

The insertion sequences (IS) or simple transposons are shorter sequences (800 to 1500 bp) and do not
code for proteins.

These sequences carry the genetic information necessary for their transposition (e., the gene for the
enzyme transposase)

Insertion sequences have been identified in bacteriophages, in F factor plasmid and many bacteria.

2)Transposons (Tn) or Complex Transposons


Transposons (Tn) or complex transposons are several thousand base pair long, and have genes that code
for one or more proteins which might include resistance factors in bacteria acting against antibiotics.

A distinguishing character of a transposon is the presence of identical, inverted terminal repeat (IR)
sequences ranging from 8 to 38 base pairs (b.p.)

These inverted repeats are unique to different types of transposons.

A short (less than ten b.p.) sequence is present on either side of a transposon.

By Adnan Ali

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