Question

State the role of transposons in silencing of mrna in eukaryotic cells

Answer 1

Transposons also called as jumping genes are the gene sequences present in the genome of eukaryotic cells that can jump to different locations within a genome.These cause RNA interferance (RNAi) by silencing specific sequence of DNA and is method of cellular defence by all eukaryotic cells.
   Transposons that replicate via RNA are called retrotransposons.They are the type of transpososons that copy themselves to RNA and then back to DNA so that it may integrate back to the genome.The RNA formed from these retrotransposons combine with the mRNA due to complimentarity and forms dsRNA molecule and prevents the translation of the mRNA called gene silencing