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This article was the subject of an educational assignment in 2014 Q3. Further details were available on the "Education Program:University of Western Ontario/Advanced Genetics (Fall 2014)" page, which is now unavailable on the wiki.

(First two sentances not written by me)The mobilome is the total of all mobile genetic elements in a genome. Elements that can move within the genome ( transposable element) are the major constituents of the mobilome (My written contribution starts here)Mobilome can be broken down into four categories: transposons, plasmids, bacteriophages and self-splicing molecular parasites ^[1] . The first discovery of these elements was with Barbara McClintock and her discovery of transposable elements. In eukaryotes the mobilome’s can be broadly defined with transposable elements where they move within the genome, there is a very low chance that the DNA will move between the cells. However, in prokaryotes this isn’t the case, as the movement of genetic mobile elements isn’t confined to its own genome compared to eukaryotes. Examples of this movement are transformation, conjugation and transduction ^[2]

The mobilome is a large source of what produces much of our genetic variation within the genome and in populations. Particularly in humans there are three families of human retrotransposons that’re active in our genome: LINE1, Alu and SVA elements ^[3]. The functional impact of these retrotransposons depends on the location in where there are reinserted back into the genome and sequence of the element itself. For example insertions in introns can produce premature truncation of the protein, disrupt the termination sequence and effect the abundance of the transcript. There are cases that have been found that these insertions have been the cause of rare cases of Mendelian disorders including hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, breast and colon cancers ^[3]. It’s becoming apparent that the mobilome is a source of human genomic variation in complex diseases.

As stated before prokaryotes have elements that move within the genomes or between genomes of bacterial cells ^[1]. The movement between genomes is known as horizontal gene transfer ( HGT). Horizontal gene transfer is an important element in prokaryotes for genetic diversity, as they’re non-sexual entities. Prokaryotes also have access to plasmids that usually encode the basic genes for replication and a collection of accessory genes. The classic plasmids are a circular double stranded closed ring of DNA ^[2]. Examples of this are plasmids that offer antibiotic resistance.