A new study has revealed that "junk DNA" descended from ancient viruses could play a key role in controlling genes.

The team focused on long interspersed element 1 (LINE-1), a family of transposons that collectively make up about 17% of the human genome.

New method of analysis reveals that transposable elements (TEs), which make up 45% of the human genome, play a crucial role ...

Got junk? Learn how a new study suggests that, when it comes to our genetic code, that may actually be a good thing.

A new international study suggests that ancient viral DNA embedded in our genome, which were long dismissed as genetic “junk”, may actually play powerful roles in regulating gene expression. Focusing ...

Transposable Elegance Transposons, mobile DNA elements found in the genomes of prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms, move randomly from one site in a chromosome to another using a process catalyzed by ...

In spermatogenesis, loss of promoter DNA methylation reactivates retrotransposons in patterns shaped by chromatin ...

Transposable elements are part of the noncoding genome, the more than 98 percent of our DNA that doesn’t hold recipes for proteins, and they make up around half of our DNA. Decades of research point ...

Transposable elements are broadly categorised into two classes: retrotransposons (requiring transcription before being able to transpose) and DNA transposons.

Geneticist and computational biologist, Meixia Zhao studies transposable elements — also known as “jumping genes” — using maize as a model system. She joined Miami University in fall 2018 as assistant ...

Transposons, he said, are a good inspiration for the third group: “These elements are just really ready for that.” Looking ahead, he hopes to apply transposon-based systems to gene editing.