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.

Jumping genes in bdelloid rotifers are tamped down by DNA methylation performed by an enzyme pilfered from bacteria roughly 60 million years ago, a study finds.

Long lambasted as junk DNA or genomic parasites, transposable elements turn out to be contributors to adaptation.

The movements of so-called jumping genes can generate the genetic diversity needed to drive evolutionary change in populations over time.  

A transposable element that jumped into the TBXT gene, which is linked to tail morphology, appears to be to blame for our missing appendage.

As male Drosophila grow old, selfish genetic elements that are abundant on the Y chromosome become more active, which appears to reduce longevity.

A tool for identifying jumping gene insertions in DNA sequencing data turns up possible explanations for four patients’ rare developmental disorders.

Researchers repurpose the CRISPR machinery to turn whole classes of transposable elements on or off.

The study could pave the way for transplanting porcine organs to humans without the risk of reigniting endogenous retroviruses.

From sequencing bacteriophages to synthesizing bacterial genomes to defining a minimal genome

In the evolutionary arms race between pathogens and hosts, genetic elements known as transposons are regularly recruited as assault weapons for cellular defense.

Different mechanisms repress mobile DNA elements in human embryonic stem cells depending on the elements’ evolutionary ages.

Researchers uncover a group of mobile genetic elements in bacteria and archaea encoding a Cas enzyme.

Researchers find evidence that transposable elements, also known as jumping genes, may contribute to the development of the psychiatric disorder.

Weird and wonderful, plant DNA is challenging preconceptions about the evolution of life, including our own species.

Raising one evolutionary question after another, Brandon Gaut has harvested a crop of novel findings about how plant genomes evolve.