Miniature Inverted-repeat Transposable Elements
Miniature Inverted-repeat Transposable Elements (MITEs) are a group of non-autonomous Class II transposable elements (DNA sequences). Being non-autonomous, MITEs cannot code for their own transposase. They exist within the genomes of animals, plants, fungi, bacteria and even viruses. MITEs are generally short (50 to 500 bp) elements with terminal inverted repeats (TIRs; 10–15 bp) and two flanking target site duplications (TSDs). Like other transposons, MITEs are inserted predominantly in gene-rich regions and this can be a reason that they affect gene expression and play important roles in accelerating eukaryotic evolution. Their high copy number in spite of small sizes has been a topic of interest. Origin of MITEs A detailed study of MITEs reveals that MITE subfamilies have arisen from related autonomous elements from a single genome and these subfamilies constitute the MITE families. One type of autonomous element can give rise to one or more MITE families. Classification Based on their relations in sequences of TIRs with known TE superfamilies, MITEs have been classified into certain families. For example, wTourist, Acrobat, Hearthealer are MITE families in some plant species are under the TE superfamily PIF/Harbinger. Stowaway is a MITE family in Pisum sativum L. with TSD TA in relation