Deleterious transposable elements and the extinction of asexuals
Article Abstract:
The genomes of virtually all sexually reproducing species contain transposable elements where the active elements transpose more rapidly but when inactivated by mutation or excision, their numbers can be kept in check. An important component of the evolutionary advantage of sex over asex lies in the ability of sex, despite facilitating the spread of deleterious elements within interbreeding populations and also in restraining their intragenomic proliferation.
Publication Name: BioEssays
Subject: Biological sciences
ISSN: 0265-9247
Year: 2005
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
How and when did Arabidopsis thaliana become highly self-fertilising
Article Abstract:
The adoption of Arabidopsis thaliana as a plant model species has led to interest in how self-compatibility was lost so that this species became highly inbreeding. A new work studying polymorphism at two loci found strikingly low diversity at one of them, suggesting that the spread of a mutation in this gene was the cause of self-compatibility in an ancestor of Arabidopsis thaliana.
Publication Name: BioEssays
Subject: Biological sciences
ISSN: 0265-9247
Year: 2005
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Resistance and the jumping gene
Article Abstract:
The alteration in the metabolic enzymes capable of degrading pesticides or changes in the functionality of insecticide targets due to transposon insertion is discussed. Transposon alteration alters gene product function and thus causes resistance.
Publication Name: BioEssays
Subject: Biological sciences
ISSN: 0265-9247
Year: 2006
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Deleterious mutations and the origin of the meiotic ploidy cycle. Heterozygote advantage and the evolution of a dominant diploid phase
- Abstracts: Deleterious mutations, apparent stabilizing selection and the maintenance of quantitative variation. Dynamics of cytoplasmic incompatibility and mtDNA variation in natural Drosophila simulans populations
- Abstracts: When specialized sites are important for synapsis and the distribution of crossovers. Endogenous inhibitors of RNA interference in Caenorhabditis elegans
- Abstracts: Olfactory receptors, vomeronasal receptors, and the organization of olfactory information. The synaptic guidepost protein SYG-2 and its receptor, SYG-1, generate synaptic specificity
- Abstracts: Epithelial-Mesenchymal transitions: twist in development and metastasis. Bacterial adhesion and entry into host cells