Researchers map changing epigenetic modifications that enable transposons to run amok

Much like cancer cells, plant cells grown for a long time outside of their normal milieu, in culture dishes, have highly unstable genomes. Changes in gene activity, or how genes are "expressed," help cells cope with challenging culture conditions but inadvertently also leave genes prone to mis-regulation by transposons -- bits of DNA that can jump around in the genome, inserting themselves into random genetic locations, often disrupting normal gene function and regulation.

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