In analyzing genomes, locating transposable elements is an important step in the process of finding areas which encode genes. Class II describes a subset of transposons which have specific properties. In eukaryotic genomes, Class II transposable elements are uniquely identified by their inverted repeats on opposing ends and internal coding regions. They also can move through DNA intermediates a...

Transposable elements (i.e. insertion sequences and transposons) are components of nearly all bacterial genomes. The majority of these elements have been identified as a result of various sequencing projects. However, in most cases, their activity was not experimentally confirmed. For this reason several strategies have been developed that allow direct cloning and identification of functional t...

We propose a new conceptual framework to study the dynamics of transposable elements. Based on a genetic algorithm, our model is designed as a self-organizing system. Our results show that transposable elements could emerge from a single endonuclease gene. The DNA repair mechanisms appear to condition the emergence success of class II TEs. Antagonist selective forces acting on transposable elem...