Scientists have uncovered evidence supporting a mechanism in which transposable elements (TEs), once considered ...

Heterochromatin, sometimes known as the “dark side of the genome,” is a poorly studied fraction of DNA that makes up about half of our genetic material. For more than 50 years scientists have puzzled ...

Transposable elements are DNA sequences which are also known as “jumping genes”, given their ability to move from one location of the genome to another. They are present in all eukaryotic genomes and ...

The human genome, an intricate tapestry of genetic information for life, has proven to be a treasure trove of strange features. Among them are segments of DNA that can "jump around" and move within ...

Over half of our genomes consists of thousands of remnants of ancient viral DNA, known as transposable elements, which are widespread across the tree of life. Once dismissed as the "dark side" of the ...

One person's junk is another's treasure. An international team of scientists have found that strings of "junk" DNA that were written off as having no useful function are actually pretty important ...

This schematic illustrates how transposable elements, derived from functional RNAs or retroviruses, shape the human genome and act as regulatory DNA elements. It highlights their essential roles in ...

A new study reveals how transposable elements (TEs) expanded gene regulation during brain evolution, shaping modern neural ...

To understand how organisms are related, researchers use molecular information to construct phylogenetic trees. Most of the time, scientists use thousands of protein-coding sequences to determine ...

Most lethal mutations in wild fruit flies are driven by newly transferred jumping genes, not small DNA errors, according to a new study from Duke University. The findings, published in PLOS Biology, ...

In healthy cells, transposable elements (TEs) are typically inactivated by methylation. But in cancer cells, these elements can become demethylated, enabling them to be expressed (1). Some ...