Dynamics and Evolution of Transposable Elements

Book excerpt: This text deals with the evolution of transposable elements (TE). Two main aspects are presented. First, after a description of the main types of elements, their life and death within a species, including regulation of transposition, and their distribution in natural populations and on chromosomes are discussed. Then, the impact of TEs on the host genomes, the putative relationship between environment and transposition rates lead to a discussion of the interaction (or coevolution) between TEs and their host. Second, these results introduce the analysis of the phylogenies of TEs and their interpretations, according to different models i.e. horizontal versus vertical transmission. Finally, the questions of the origin and of the general evolution of TEs is raised from the comparison of conserved regions like reverse transcriptase or transposase-integrase domains.