Q.What are jumping genes ?

Jumping genes (transposons) are mobile DNA elements that can change their position within the genome.

Jumping genes is the popular name for transposons or transposable elements -- discrete DNA segments, typically bounded by short terminal repeat sequences, that are capable of excising themselves (or making a copy of themselves) and inserting at a new location elsewhere in the genome, a process often mediated by a transposon-encoded enzyme called transposase. Barbara McClintock discovered this phenomenon in the 1940s while studying the genetics of kernel-colour variegation in maize: she found that certain "controlling elements" moved into and out of the genes controlling pigment production, switching them on or off and producing the mottled, spotted colour patterns seen in some maize kernels -- a discovery so far ahead of its time that it was not widely accepted until molecular techniques confirmed it decades later, eventually earning he …