Mobile Genetic Elements span the tree of life, and in many ways are just as diverse as their host organisms. This diversity can be hard to grasp, especially since few researchers work on a wide variety of elements or taxa. With that in mind this list was compiled to catalog a variety of elements that may be unfamiliar to researchers who focus on Eukaryotic or Prokaryotic MGEs exclusively. It includes phylogenetic groups of elements but also phenetic groups of elements that do not fit into the traditional phylogeny-based classification systems, or whose origins are not known. It also includes information on whether the elements in question use their own proteins to mobilize, or rely on the proteins of other elements.
This list is maintained by Tyler A. Elliott. Suggestions, updates and error corrections can be directed to Tyler, or by making changes to this page itself.
| Type | Description | Classification | Taxonomic Coverage | Autonomy | Additional References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACME | Arginine Catabolic Mobile Element | Prokaryote | |||
| Ajax | Terminal-Repeat Retrotransposon in Miniature | LTR Retrotransposon/5S rRNA hybrid | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| Aloposon | tRNA inserting elements with large ORFs | Archaea | |||
| Amaranthus eccDNA | Extrachromosomal DNA | Eukaryote | |||
| BIME | Bacterial Interspersed Mosaic Element | Prokaryote | |||
| Borg | Prokaryote | ||||
| Bpu | Eukaryote | ||||
| BTMR1 | Bombus terrestris Mosaic Repeat 1 | Retrotransposon hybrid | Eukaryote | ||
| Cassandra | Terminal-Repeat Retrotransposon in Miniature | LTR Retrotransposon/5S rRNA hybrid | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| CAST | CRISPR-Cas-Tn7 | ITR/TIR/DNA Transposon | Prokaryote | ||
| CHeCME | Cymbomonas heliorhodopsin-containing mobile elements | Putative endogenous Mirusvirus | Eukaryote | ||
| CIME | Cis-Mobilizable Element | ICE/Integrative and Conjugative Element | Prokaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| Cla-element | Eukaryote | Link | |||
| CR/CREE | Correira Repeat/Correira Repeat Enclosed Element | Prokaryote | |||
| ERIC | Enterobacterial Repetitive Intergenic Consensus | Prokaryote | Link | ||
| Foldback | ITR/TIR/DNA Transposon | Eukaryote | Link | ||
| GMT | Gamma-Mobile-Trio | Mobile island containing anti-bacterial, anti-eukaryotic and anti-phage genes | Bacteria | Autonomous | |
| HEART | Hepadnavirus-like Retroelement | Retrotransposon | Eukaryote | Autonomous | |
| Helenus | Terminal-Repeat Retrotransposon in Miniature | LTR Retrotransposon/tRNA hybrid | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| HINE | Helentron-associated Interspersed Element | Helitron | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| IME | Integrative and Mobilizable Element | ICE/Integrative and Conjugative Element | Prokaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| Introner | Eukaryote | ||||
| IStron | IS Element/Group I Intron hybrid | Prokaryote | |||
| LARD | Large Retrotranposon Derivative | LTR Retrotransposon | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| Linear Mitochondrial Plasmid | Plasmid | Eukaryote | |||
| LITE | Large Inverted Repeat Transposable Element | ITR/TIR/DNA Transposon | Eukaryote | ||
| LT1/TLE1 | Transposon-like element in tick mtDNA | Eukaryote | 1, 2 | ||
| MIGE | Major Interspersed Genomic Element | Eukaryote | |||
| MITE | Miniature Inverted-Repeat Transposable Element | ITR/TIR/DNA Transposon | Eukaryote, Prokaryote | Non-autonomous | Link |
| MSITE | Miniature Subterminal Inverted-Repeat Transposable Element | ITR/TIR/DNA Transposon | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| orfA | Eukaryote | Link | |||
| P-P | Phage-Plasmid | Prokaryote | Link | ||
| Pack-TYPE | DNA transposon carrying host-derived DNA | ITR/TIR/DNA Transposon | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | Link |
| Palindromic GC Cluster | Eukaryote | Link | |||
| PATE | Palindrome-Associated Transposable Element | ITR/TIR/DNA Transposon | Prokaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| PCT | Pseudo-Compound Transposon | Prokaryote | |||
| PICI/PRCI | Phage-Inducible/Phage-Related Chromosomal Island | Prokaryote | |||
| Pipolin | piPolB-Encoding Mobile Genetic Element | Prokaryote | Link | ||
| PLE | PICI-like Element | Prokaryote | |||
| REP/REPIN/RAYT | Repetitive Extragenic Palindrome/Rep Doublet Forming Hairpin/REP-Associated Tyrosine Recombinase | Prokaryote | Link | ||
| Replitron | HUH endonuclease DNA transposon | Eukaryote | |||
| REPtron | HUH endonuclease DNA transposon | Prokaryote | |||
| Retro-DNA | Retrotransposon/DNA Transposon hybrid | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | ||
| Retroplasmid | Plasmid | Eukaryote | |||
| Retrozyme | Retrotransposon | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | ||
| Revolver | Eukaryote | ||||
| RIT | Recombinase In Trio | Prokaryote | |||
| S2m | Virus | Link | |||
| SaPI | Staphylococcus aureus Pathogenicity Island | Prokaryote | |||
| SBTE | Secondary-Bm1 Transposable Element | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | ||
| SCCmec | Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome mec | Prokaryotes | |||
| SDR | Small Dispersed Repeat | Prokaryotes | |||
| Selfish Minicircle Chromosome | Eukaryote | ||||
| SERE | Salmonella Serotype Enteritidis Repeat Element | Prokaryotes | |||
| SIDE | Short Internally Deleted Element | Non-LTR Retrotransposon/LINE | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| Sj | Eukaryote | ||||
| Sm | Eukaryote | ||||
| SMART | Small LTR Retrotransposon | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | ||
| SNAC | Small Non-Autonomous CACTA | ITR/TIR/DNA Transposon | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| snoRT/scaRT | sno/scaRNA Retroposon | Retrotransposon | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| SSV | Suicidal Integrase | Archaea | Link | ||
| Strand-Biased Circularizing Integrative Elements | Bacteria | 1, 2 | |||
| Superior | Eukaryote | ||||
| Teratorn/Albatross | Herpesvirus/piggyBac hybrid | ITR/TIR/DNA Transposon | Eukaryote | Link | |
| TIME | Tn3-Derived Inverted-Repeat Miniature Element | ITR/TIR/DNA Transposon | Prokaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| TR-GAG | Terminal-Repeat Retrotransposon with GAG | LTR Retrotransposon | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| TR-INT-RT | Terminal-Repeat Retrotransposon with INT and RT | LTR Retrotransposon | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| TR-RH | Terminal-Repeat Retrotransposon with RNAseH | LTR Retrotransposon | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| TR-RT | Terminal-Repeat Retrotransposon with RT | LTR Retrotransposon | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| TR-RT-RH | Terminal-Repeat Retrotransposon with RT and RH | LTR Retrotransposon | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| TRIM | Terminal-Repeat Retrotransposon in Miniature | LTR Retrotransposon | Eukaryote | Non-autonomous | |
| Tycheposon | ITR/TIR/DNA Transposon | Prokaryote | |||
| Wendy | ITR/TIR/DNA Transposon | Eukaryote | |||
| WE | W-Element | ||||
| Xba | Eukaryote |