SINEs of progress: Mobile element applications to molecular ecology.
Mobile elements represent a unique and under-utilized set of tools for molecular ecologists. They are essentially homoplasy-free characters with the ability to be genotyped in a simple and efficient manner. Interpretation of the data generated using mobile elements can be simple compared to other genetic markers. They exist in a wide variety of taxa and are useful over a wide selection of temporal ranges within those taxa. Furthermore, their mode of evolution instills them with another advantage over other types of multilocus genotype data: the ability to determine loci applicable to a range of time spans in the history of a taxon. In this review, I discuss the application of mobile element markers, especially short interspersed elements (SINEs), to phylogenetic and population data, with an emphasis on potential applications to molecular ecology.
Ray
David A
DA
Department of Biology, West Virginia University, 53 Campus Dr, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA. david.ray@mail.wvu.edu
D002965:Classification / Q000379:methods; D004463:Ecology / Q000379:methods*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005819:Genetic Markers; D005828:Genetics, Population / Q000379:methods; D005838:Genotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D020086:Short Interspersed Nucleotide Elements
D005819:Genetic Markers