An introduction to the vast world of transposable elements – what about the diatoms?

Abstract

Transposable elements (TEs) are DNA sequences that are able to move and replicate within the genomes of virtually all organisms, ranging from animals to plants, and also including protozoans, bacteria and diatoms. Initially considered to be ‘junk DNA’ with no function, TEs are now thought to play a pivotal role in the evolution of genomes and organisms. This review is intended to provide non-specialists with an introduction to the world of TEs by summarizing the information available about these elements, ranging from their impact on genome structure to their potential involvement in the evolution of species. In this review, we propose to bring together what is known about the TEs and provide an overview of recent advances concerning TEs in diatoms.

Keywords:

• transposable element
• genome
• diatom
• evolution
• stress response

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the European program 570 GIAVAP (FP7-KBBE-2010-4). We would like to thank M. Ghosh for revising the English text; our especial thanks go to the two reviewers for their helpful comments that have enabled us to improve this manuscript.