Mice with overactive LINE-1 retrotransposons in their brains exhibit movement difficulties, suggesting the genetic elements may play a role in ataxia in humans. 

Genetic studies have made it clear that eukaryotic horizontal gene transfer can and does happen. Exactly how, though, remains speculative.

Horizontally transferred genes play significant roles in eukaryotic genomes

DNA passed to and from all kinds of organisms, even across kingdoms, has helped shape the tree of life, to a large and undisputed degree in microbes and also unexpectedly in multicellular fungi, plants, and animals.

Researchers identify a sensor that sets off inflammation in the absence of infection when it detects RNA from the mobile genetic elements.

This year revealed just how much scientists have learned about the disease, from how animals become naturally cancer-resistant to how tumor cells harness extracellular DNA to develop rapid drug resistance.

Activation of retrotransposons in the animals’ cancerous cells sets off an innate immune response that triggers cell death.

Mice who get less attention from their mothers have more copies of a common retrotransposon in the genomes of their hippocampal neurons.

No two neurons are alike. What does that mean for brain function?

Recent advances in single-cell omics and other techniques are revealing variation at genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, and posttranscriptomic levels.

Meet some of the people featured in the March 2015 issue of The Scientist.

How do we age, and can we slow it down?

These mobile genetic elements can wreak havoc on the genome. Researchers are now trying to understand how such activity contributes to the aging process.