BIOS-115 Lecture 13: BIOS 115 lecture 13
4 Nov 2018
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Transposable elements: normal components of the genome that can jump to different places in the genome: rare process in humans. ~40 % of genome has moved around in the distant past: most active transposition in retroviruses. E. g. hiv: inserting themselves into the cell"s dna, and then forcing the cell to make many new copies of their genetic information. Transposable elements in corn: transposition discovered by barbara mcclintock in corn, 1950s, dismissed, until 1970s when discovered in bacteria, awarded 1983 nobel prize in physiology or medicine (unshared) The dna sequence spreads by forming additional copies of itself within the genome; & It makes no specific contribution to the reproductive success of it"s host organism: fyi- origin of meme, meme: any cultural entity that an observer might consider a replicator (analogous to gene, richard dawkins the selfish gene. Reverse transcriptase (rt: dispersed repeated dna. Lines encode rt and transposase; sines do not.
