Barbara McClintock and the discovery of jumping genes

How retrotransposons shape genome regulation

“…Notably, in some plants such as maize, gene coding regions are just small islands “floating in a sea of retrotransposons” [3]. Transposons were discovered in maize and described as “controlling elements” by Barbara McClintock in the late 1940s [4]. TEs were considered “genomic junk” [5] until more recent works highlighted the substantial impact of mobile elements on shaping the genome and potentially rewiring its control [6-8].…”

Séquences provenant d’éléments génétiques mobiles, face cachée du génome humain

“…Les LTR sont divi-Le génome des eucaryotes est constitué d'un ensemble de séquences d'ADN dont certaines ont une origine particulière, que l'on nomme « éléments transposables » ou encore « éléments génétique mobiles ». Ces éléments ont été découverts dans les années 1980 par Barbara McClintock, dont le travail de génétique sur les grains de maïs a été récompensé par l'attribution du Prix Nobel [1]. Ils sont présents en proportion variable selon les espèces.…”

Timely scientific opinions

“…It was decades later, after transposons were identified in DNA sequences, that her work was seen as foundational. Surely had the term sound science been around in her time, Dr. McClintock's work would have been labeled "junk science"; it certainly was not considered good science initially even though it met all of Overton's criteria (Ravindran 2012).…”