Gene piece movement by the newly-described Helitron family of transposable elements has significantly impacted the evolution of the maize genome. Helitrons have been implicated in causing gene non-colinearity between different maize inbred lines, however capture and movement of functional genes to different regions of the genome by Helitrons remains to be demonstrated. The abundance of these elements and the extent of diversity among them remain largely undetermined. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain their transposition and mechanism by which these elements prolifically capture and mobilize gene sequences, but each lacks supporting experimental evidence. A more complete understanding of this process requires molecular and genetic evidence of Helitron activity in modern maize genome.
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Lal, S.K., Georgelis, N., Hannah, C.L. (2009). Helitrons: Their Impact on Maize Genome Evolution and Diversity. In: Bennetzen, J.L., Hake, S. (eds) Handbook of Maize. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-77863-1_16
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