Recent Advancements in Tc1-Like Transposons

Transposable elements widely disseminate in genomes of various organisms.Transpositions of these elements take place from one position in the chromsome to another,and their amplification also occurs in genomes.Activities of transposable elements create genomic rearrangements and gene mutations,and contribute to cause biological diversity and promote evolutionary transitions,indicating that transposable elements are major drivers of genomic evolution.Transposable elements fall into two major classes:retrotransposons and DNA transposons.Tc1-like transposons that belong to DNA transposon class are the most abundant and most ubiquitous group in nature.This review focuses on Tc1-like transposon's structure characteristics,their amplification and transposition mechanisms,and their burst dynamics,and also prospects to the application of these elements as a tool for molecular biology and the research on these elements in the future.