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Article: First active 'jumping genes' in rice found.
- Article from:
- Life Science Weekly
- Article date:
- January 27, 2003
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2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- University of Georgia researchers studying rice genomes under a National Science Foundation Plant Genome Research Program award have identified the species' first active DNA transposons, or "jumping genes."
In collaboration with researchers from Cornell University, Washington University, and Japan, geneticist Susan Wessler also discovered the first active "miniature inverted-repeat transposable element," or "MITE," of any organism.
Rice (Oryza sativa), an important food crop worldwide, has the smallest genome size of all cereals at 430 million base pairs of DNA. About 40% of the rice genome comprises repetitive ...