Mariner transposon

Tc1/mariner is a class of Interspersed repeats DNA transposons. The elements of this class are found in all animals, including humans. They can also be found in protists.

The class is named after its two best-studied members, the Tc1 transposon of Caenorhabditis elegans and the mariner transposon of Drosophila.

Tc1 is a transposon active in Caenorhabditis elegans. There are also Tc1-like transposons in humans, all inactive. Tc1-like elements are present in other lower vertebrates, including several fish species and amphibians.

In C. elegans, it is a 1610 base-pair long sequence. Experiments show that this element "jumps" in human cells, with its transposase as the only protein required.

Another example of this family is Tc3, also a transposon found in C. elegans.

Mariner-like elements are found in multiple species, including humans. The Mariner transposon was first discovered by Jacobson and Hartl in Drosophila in 1986. This Class II transposable element is known for its uncanny ability to be transmitted horizontally in many species. There are an estimated 14,000 copies of Mariner in the human genome comprising 2.6 million base pairs. The first mariner-element transposons outside of animals were found in Trichomonas vaginalis. These characteristics of the Mariner transposon inspired the science fiction novel The Mariner Project by Bob Marr.

Mos1 (for Mosaic element) was discovered in Drosophila mauritiana. The Himar1 element has been isolated from the horn fly, Haematobia irritans and can be used as a genetic tool in Escherichia coli.

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