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Mini-Review Article

Horizontal transfer of transposable elements in plants

Philippe M. Fortune, Anne Roulin and Olivier Panaud

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The analysis of genomes suggests that horizontal transfers are frequent phenomena. In eukaryotes these transfer often involve transposable elements and can be detected by sequence analysis or phylogenetic reconstruction. Nevertheless, the dynamics of transposable elements and reticulation in species history, especially in plants, can sometimes be misleading. While the horizontal transfer of transposable elements is well documented in animals, only two cases have been described in plants despite the abundance of these elements in plant genomes. The study of horizontal transfers of transposable elements in plants represents a new challenge to understand their impact on genomic diversity and consequently on the process of adaptation to their environment.

Authors

Philippe M. Fortune

Université de Perpignan Via Domitia

Anne Roulin

Université de Perpignan Via Domitia

Olivier Panaud

Université de Perpignan Via Domitia

This is an open-access article

 Download PDF

If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.