The Potential Role of Transposable Elements as Molecular Markers

Abstract

Molecular markers emerged as very important biotechnological tools in plant biotechnology. Molecular markers represent any gene region or DNA fragment related to the gene region in the genome. Numerous molecular marker techniques have been developed especially after the discovery of the Polymerase Chain Reaction. In agricultural biotechnology studies; they are used effectively in many areas such as physical mapping, gene discovery, labeling and genetic diversity with molecular marker technologies. Transposons can also be used as genetic markers because they cause insertional polymorphism. Transposons are DNA sequences that displace within the genome, causing permanent mutations and responsible for genome size changes. With the development of technologies, new techniques and the completion of genome studies in many species, transposon has been observed that it is found in almost every living species and a large part of the genome of many species consists of transposons. Plants are the living things with the highest percentage of transposons. Transposons are grouped as DNA transposons and retrotransposons according to their working principles. Studies are conducted to determine the relationship between retrotransposon markers and species. For this purpose, many marker methods have been developed; based on IRAP and REMAP retrotransposon insertion polymorphisms.