Talk:Transposon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is part of WikiProject Genetics, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to genetics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this page, or visit the project page to join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. |
| ??? | This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale. |
| ??? | This article has not yet received an importance rating. |
 |
This article is within the scope of the Molecular and Cellular Biology WikiProject. To participate, visit the WikiProject for more information. The WikiProject's current monthly collaboration is focused on improving Restriction enzyme. |
||
| Start | This article has been rated as start-Class on the assessment scale. |
||
| High | This article is on a subject of high-importance within molecular and cellular biology. | ||
|
Article Grading: The article has been rated for quality and/or importance but has no comments yet. If appropriate, please review the article and then leave comments here to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and what work it will need. |
|||
i think the transposons in science section needs to be merged into the rest of the article. - Omegatron 04:53, Jul 12, 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Transposons and Retrotransposons
This article appears to have some confusion in description.
The leading paragraph distinguishes between "transposons" and "retrotransposons", highlighting difference in how they move from a position to another in DNA.
- Transposons can move directly from one position to another within the genome, while retrotransposons have first to be transcribed to RNA and then back to DNA by reverse transcriptase.
The section "Types of transposons", however, states that the retrotransposon is a type of the transposon, leaving a question whether or not the retrotransposon should be regarded as a transposon.
Admittedly the section refers also to "Class II transposons" after "retrotransposons", and then readers may learn that what is called "transposons" in the leading paragraph should be taken as "Class II". But rewriting the description would make the article easier to read, I believe.--Toby (YebisYa) IQUEPPE 09:33, 2 May 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Not all DNA transposons use a "cut and paste" mechanism
For example, an E. coli transposable element, known as Tn1000 or gamma-delta transposes via a cointegrate structure which, after a process called resolution, results in a copy of the original element inserted in a new location.
--Phillip 01:58, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Insertion element/sequence
After a quick search through this article and Wikipedia, I could not find discussion about insertion elements or insertion sequences. I would think this would be an important subject in the context of transposons, and it probably even deserves its own article. Am I correct in my conclusion that no such article/discussion exists or am I overlooking something?--GregRM 01:36, 1 December 2005 (UTC)
- As far as I know there are no articles on prokaryotic insertion sequences yet, it'd be a great addition and would probably be best in its own article.--nixie 01:53, 1 December 2005 (UTC)
-
- I started an article on insertion sequences. For the most part, my knowledge on the subject is limited to what I have read in a few textbooks and what I have learned in a few general classes. Therefore, it would be great if people with more experience on the topic could expand the article, check for accuracy, etc.--GregRM 01:42, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Class III
There seems to be a third class, consisting of transposons whose transposition mechanism is currently unknown (meaning that they will probably end up in Class I or II eventually). I may have misunderstood my GF's notes, of course. --Palnatoke 16:49, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
- A long time ago I wrote on EvoWiki [1]: Class III are Miniature Inverted-repeat Transposable Elements (MITEs): sequences of about 400 base pairs and 15 base pair inverted repeats that vary very little. They are found in their thousands in the genomes of both plants and animals (over 100,000 were found in the rice genome). MITEs are too small to encode any proteins. My reference was either Russel 2002 or Kimball's Biology Pages [2] or both. Joe D (t) 17:20, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] "See also" section
I just added a "see also" section, but I wasn't sure about the policy on adding links that already appear in the article (e.g. I had considered adding P element, Transposons as a genetic tool, Retrotransposon, and Transposase). I could not find any definitive policy on this in the style guide after a limited search. If you think they are appropriate, let me know, and I can add them in.--GregRM 03:57, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
- As a general guide, there is no reason to include links that appear in the article as a see also section, it duplicates existing information, and increases the lenght of the table of content and page for no real gain.--nixie 22:32, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] A Few things - title, content, and classification
I think the page itself should be renamed to mobile genetic elements, because the classes given in the section don't refer to classes of 'transposons,' but rather, transposable elements of DNA. Class I should be RNA-based elements (because class I are the elements that transpose via a RNA based intermediate, while class II are elements that transpose through a DNA intermediate), which includes retrotransposons and retroviruses (and telomerase which likely evolved from the RT in the LINEs?), as opposed to 'retrotransposons'. Similarly, Class II is also incorrectly named because it refers to DNA based transpositions, which includes the insertion elements also mentioned in this discussion, as well as transposons and phages. Also, as mentioned, DNA based elements can also use a copy and paste based mechanism. As well, the classification of the RNA-based elements is incorrect. It should be grouped into LTR and non-LTR elements. And in the non-LTR elements section, it's classified as SINE or LINE. That's the way they teach it nowadays anyway. Furthermore, both RNA and DNA-based elements can be classified based on whether they are autonomous or non-autonomous, that being whether they encode all the enzymes required for transposition (autonomous) or are still functional if the missing activities can be provided by other elements (the autonomous ones). This makes will clear confusion regarding SINEs and LINEs too since LINEs are autonomous, while SINEs are non-autonomous and depend on machinery encoded within SINEs, which is also reflected by their respective sizes (6-8 kb for LINEs; 100-300 bp for SINEs). --Alan C 06:15, 24 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Missing Prokaryotic Transposoable Elements
An entire prokaryotic transposon section is missing. Terms like composite transposons, inverted repeat sequence, simple transposons, target site duplication, replicative transposition, and conservative transposition should all be included in that section. --Matt E
[edit] Prokaryotic transposons
This edit seems to suggest that all prokaryotic transposons are insertion sequences. I was under the impression that insertion sequences only contained genes for their own transcription, which seems to contradict the articles' apparent claim that insertion sequences contain additional genes. Is this an issue of nomenclature or is this section wrong?--GregRM 21:25, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
- Update: I tried to correct the description of insertion sequences. If you disagree, feel free to discuss here.--GregRM 01:17, 13 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Transposons Role in Evolution
Maybe someone more familiar with editing wiki can address this, but I believe there is siginificant evidence that transposons accelerated evolution "http://www.hhmi.org/cgi-bin/askascientist/highlight.pl?kw=&file=answers%2Fgenetics%2Fans_029.html"--192.147.58.6 (talk) 18:25, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
