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The finding, made by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, shows that genes are not always inherited only from parent to offspring. Some genes can move, and in this case, the researchers directly observed evidence that a jumping gene can pass between species, from predator to prey. Jumping genes are genetic parasites found in bacteria, plants, animals, and humans. They can be released inside cells as small RNA molecules from ribonucleic acid (RNA), then use specialized mechanisms to insert themselves into other parts of the genome. When they land in a new place, they can...

The research shows that the same "jumping genes" are active both in the human brain and in the brain of two species, Octopus vulgaris, the common octopus, and Octopus bimaculoides, the Californian octopus. This discovery could help us understand the secret of the intelligence of these fascinating organisms. Sequencing the human genome revealed as early as 2001 that over 45% of it is composed of sequences called transposons, so-called "jumping genes" that, through molecular copy-and-paste or cut-and-paste mechanisms, can "move" from one point to another of an individual's genome, shuffling or duplicating. In most cases, these mobile elements remain silent:...

RIPs are alive and well -- and moving -- in the human genomeAn ambitious hunt by Johns Hopkins scientists for actively "jumping genes" in humans has yielded compelling new evidence that the genome, anything but static, contains numerous pesky mobile elements that may help to explain why people have such a variety of physical traits and disease risks. Using bioinformatics to compare the standard assembly of genetic elements as outlined in the reference human genome to raw whole-genome data from 310 individuals recently made available by the 1000 Genomes Project, the team revealed 1,016 new insertions of RIPs, or retrotransposon...