Mechanisms of Transposable Element Evolution in Plants and Their Effects on Gene Expression

Abstract

Transposable elements are an integral component of plant genomes. Due to their ability to expand or contract in number over relatively short evolutionary periods, the dynamics of transposable elements have a major effect on the evolution of plant genomes. Transposable elements are especially prevalent in pericentromeric regions, although genomic distributions vary according to transposable element family. Transposition-competent transposable elements are generally kept inactive through plant epigenetic mechanisms. These epigenetic control mechanisms mean that regulation of protein-coding gene expression in both euchromatic and heterochromatic regions can result from transposable elements that are proximal to a given gene or integrated into the coding regions or introns. This book chapter examines the dynamics of transposable element evolution and how transposable elements can affect gene expression both directly and indirectly.