{"id":42205,"date":"2026-10-06T12:40:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T07:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=42205"},"modified":"2026-10-06T14:25:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T08:55:27","slug":"jumping-genes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/jumping-genes\/","title":{"rendered":"Jumping Genes"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Jumping Genes Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ants branched into thousands of new species after the dinosaurs died, and a new study links that burst to jumping genes in their DNA.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Jumping Genes<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jumping genes, scientifically called <\/span><b>transposable elements (TEs) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">or <\/span><b>transposons<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, are <\/span><b>DNA sequences<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that <\/span><b>move from one location on the genome to another.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are <\/span><b>widespread in both prokaryotes and eukaryote<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s, often making up significant portions of an organism&#8217;s genetic material.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In humans, for instance, transposons account for approximately <\/span><b>50% of the genome,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> whereas in corn, they account for up to 90%.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Types<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Transposons can be grouped into distinct types based on <\/span><b>2 main criteria<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><b>their mechanism of movement<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and<\/span><b> their independence.\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are classified as <\/span><b>retrotransposons or DNA transposon<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s, depending on how they move within the genome.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are classified as <\/span><b>autonomous or non-autonomous,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> based on whether they require other transposons for their mobility.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Transposons have a dual nature as <\/span><b>both a threat to genome stability<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and a <\/span><b>driver of genetic diversity.\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the harmful side, they <\/span><b>can inactivate genes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or <\/span><b>disrupt gene expression patterns<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by <\/span><b>inserting into regulatory or coding regions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>leading to diseases<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> such as hemophilia, hypercholesterolemia and various cancers.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, transposons also play a <\/span><b>key part in evolution.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For instance, in plants, <\/span><b>environmental stresses<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> like climate change can <\/span><b>trigger increased transposon activity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, potentially giving rise to<\/span><b> adaptive mutations that enhance survival.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To <\/span><b>counter <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the <\/span><b>potentially damaging effects<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of transposons, <\/span><b>most organisms<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have <\/span><b>evolved epigenetic mechanisms to regulate their activity.\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>In human<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s, for example, <\/span><b>regions <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the<\/span><b> genome rich in transposons<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are often <\/span><b>tightly condensed <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">so that the <\/span><b>transcription machinery cannot access them.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>This densely packed DNA <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is called <\/span><b>heterochromatin<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and it is formed through histone modifications (changes to the histone proteins around which the DNA is wound) and DNA methylation (the addition of methyl groups to cytosine bases).\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Other silencing mechanisms<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are<\/span><b> based on RNAi or small <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/rna\/\" target=\"_blank\">RNAs<\/a><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, such as piRNAs, miRNAs, or siRNAs, to <\/span><b>specifically target and inactivate transposons.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While<\/span><b> most TEs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are<\/span><b> located far away from genes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in areas of the chromosome that can be thought of as <\/span><b>gene deserts<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, some are located near genes and even target gene-rich regions.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Transposons can also be useful tools in the lab, with <\/span><b>applications in mutagenesis, transgenesis, and gene therapy. <\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.earth.com\/animals\/jumping-genes-may-explain-how-ants-became-so-diverse-after-dinosaurs-died\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>EAR<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jumping genes, scientifically called transposable elements (TEs) or transposons, are DNA sequences that move from one location on the genome to another. Read more about Jumping Genes, Meaning, Transposable, Types, Genome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":42206,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[192,21,22,23],"class_list":["post-42205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-jumping-genes","tag-prelims-pointers","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42205"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127801,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42205\/revisions\/127801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}