Exeter, Jan. 4 -- : Multiple copies of the same "jumping genes" have been found in a salamander-infecting fungus.
Transposons, or jumping genes, can "copy and paste" themselves and have an effect on the organism.
The majority of organisms have some repetitive DNA, some of which are jumping genes, but this can be detrimental and there are methods to stop or restrict this.
However, the new study - led by the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology at the University of Exeter - finds a possible evolutionary advantage of these jumping genes in a fungus called Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal).
Not only did they find different versions of these jumping genes repeated multiple times in Bsal's genome - but the gene in question appears to have d...