Knowledge of Transposable Elements

Transposons, also known as transposable elements (TEs) or jumping genes, are genomic sequences that can change their loci. Transposons can be divided into DNA transposons and retrotransposons. The complex eukaryotic genomes usually harbor large proportions of TEs. Transposons used to be considered “junk DNAs”, but their roles have been increasingly recognized in recent years.

Transposons play essential roles in genomic stability, evolution, and disease. However, compared to typical genes, the functions of transposons are largely elusive, which is partly because transposons usually have multiple copies and are challenging to analyze. Recently, the rapid development of sequencing technology has provided a powerful tool for studying repetitive sequences. Our goal is to promote the studies in the pan-transposon field, including but not limited to transposition and integration, TEs and cancer, TEs and stress, TEs and evolution, etc. We will discuss the following but are not limited to:

• TEs and host stress
• TEs and genome stability
• Epigenetic regulation of TEs
• TEs and cancer
• TEs and evolution
• Horizontal gene transfer (HGT)

Keywords: Transposon, Retrotransposon, Genome, Repetitive sequences, Horizontal transfer

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