Who Discovered Transposable Elements

Barbara McClintock at her laboratory desk, 1971. By the 1970s the great strides made in molecular biology led to the discovery of transposons in other organisms, starting with viruses and bacteria.

What did McClintock discover?

Barbara McClintock made discovery after discovery over the course of her long career in cytogenetics. But she is best remembered for discovering genetic transposition (“jumping genes”).

Where are transposable elements found?

The majority of these TEs (approximately 89.5%) reside within ‘introns’ and were recruited into coding regions as novel exons. We found that TE integration often has an effect on gene function.