Talk:Mobile genetic elements

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Ynam1.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 04:20, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Merge & other issues
- Mobile genetic elements are the same as transposons, therefore this page should be merged with the page that is named 'transposons'.

- plasmids are not mobile genetic elements in the sense that they can insert themselves into a DNA molecule. They can be passed on by one bacterium to the other, but this is not what the definition of mobile genetic elements means.

- Group II introns are not mobile genetic elements by the very definition that is given: "a type of DNA that can move around within the genome". Group II introns can splice themselves out, but they are RNA elements, not DNA. They are also not genetic elements in the classic use of genetic, because the inherited material doesn't change when such a intron splices itself out.

- bacteriophage elements are indeed mobile genetic elements, but why are they different from DNA transposons? I think bacteriophage elements should be mentioned in the article about DNA transposons and not as a different category.

- the picture is suitable for the article horizontal gene transfer, or maybe an article specific about plasmids, but not in the main article about mobile genetic elements / transposons

--Zaluzar (talk) 13:51, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Molecular Genetics
— Assignment last updated by Tsenz (talk) 02:03, 9 September 2022 (UTC)