Elucidating Transposable Elements Survival Mechanisms: Invasion and Evasion by Tc1/mariner Superfamily DNA Transposons – Analysis of plant Tc1-like elements horizontal transfers and rice Mariner-like elements autoregulation

Transposable elements are mobile DNA elements residing in almost all sequenced genomes. However, the kingdom Plantae has not previously been reported to harbor Tc1-like elements (TLEs). This study reports the characterization of several plant TLEs. It was proposed that the wide distribution of transposons may be partly due to horizontal transmissions, and some cases of highly similar TLEs from distantly related species were found in this study. Once a transposon invades a new genome, it may freely amplify. Being mutagenic in nature, they are under constant scrutiny of host inhibitory mechanisms that often keep transposition activity at a basal level. A potential evasive mechanism by a rice Mariner-like element is described here to auto-regulate activity via a subterminal transposase binding motif.M.Sc