How do jumping genes cause disease, drive evolution?
Sunday, July 29, 2018 - 08:43
in Biology & Nature
Researchers have developed new techniques to track the mobilization of jumping genes. They found that during a particular period of egg development, a group of jumping-genes called retrotransposons hijacks special cells called nurse cells that nurture the developing eggs. These jumping genes use nurse cells to produce invasive material (copies of themselves called virus-like particles) that move into a nearby egg and then mobilize into the egg's DNA driving evolution, and causing disease.