Question

What is the potential consequence of the insertion of a transposon with its own termination and polyadenylation signals into an intronic region? Dumb it down please

Answer 1

A transposon is commonly known as the jumping gene. It is a DNA sequence which can frequently alter its position in the genome and result in the creation and reversal of any mutation. Transposon consists of their own regulatory sequences, which involves specific signals that lead to the termination of transcripts initiated by the promoters of the genes. So, if the transposon is inserted with its own termination signal, it will disrupt the termination signal and will continue to form multiple copies of the transposon in the intron. Another signal is polyadenylation signal (Poly A tail) of transposon which helps in the process of insertional mutagenesis of the genes in exon which inactivates the genes. So if the transposon is inserted in its poly-A region it will result in the disruption of the functional structure of the transposon. Therefore, the transposon will not be functional if it is inserted in its polyadenylation signal.