Developmental regulation of transposable elements

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Transposons, also known as jumping-genes, are mobile genetic elements that can replicate and insert themselves into new locations in the genome. They make up a huge proportion of eukaryotic genomes, for example close to 50% of the human genome is composed of transposon sequences. Since their insertions have the potential to disrupt the functions of important genes located in the genome, uncontrolled transposon activity can be mutagenic and compromise cellular viability. This has led to the view that transposons are parasitic elements that are detrimental to cell survival and transposons are predicted to be the cause of a significant proportion of human diseases. However, despite this prevailing view, emerging evidence also suggests that transposons play important beneficial roles in the evolution of genome complexity. Our laboratory uses a simple but experimentally powerful model organism, the common fruit fly, to understand the roles that transposons play, whether beneficial or detrimental, during embryonic development. Since fruit flies are extremely well characterized and many genetic tools have been developed in this organism, we can harness these technologies to clarify the roles of transposons. This work is important in order to better understand the intimate relationship between transposons and their hosts.