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The splicing of transposable elements and its role in intron evolution

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Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated that transposable elements in maize and Drosophila are spliced from pre-mRNA. These transposable element introns represent the first examples of recent addition of introns into nuclear genes. The eight reported examples of transposable element splicing include members of the maize Ac/Ds and Spm/dSpm and the Drosophila P and 412 element families. The details of the splicing of these transposable elements and their relevance to models of intron origin are discussed.

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Purugganan, M., Wessler, S. The splicing of transposable elements and its role in intron evolution. Genetica 86, 295–303 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00133728

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