Describe transposable element in maize and drosophilla.
Answers
A transposable element (TE or transposon) is a DNA sequence that can change its position within a genome, sometimes creating or reversing mutations and altering the cell's genetic identity and genome size.[1] Transposition often results in duplication of the same genetic material. Barbara McClintock's discovery of these jumping genes earned her a Nobel Prize in 1983.[2]
Transposable elements make up a small fraction of the genome and are responsible for much of the mass of DNA in a eukaryotic cell. It has been shown that TEs are important in genome function and evolution.[3] In Oxytricha, which has a unique genetic system, these elements play a critical role in development.[4] Transposons are also very useful to researchers as a means to alter DNA inside a living organism.
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