title: Revised nomenclature for transposable genetic elements.
abstract: Transposable DNA elements occur naturally in the genomes of nearly all species of prokaryotes. A proposal for a uniform transposable element nomenclature was published prominently in the 1970s but is not, at present, available online even in abstract form, and many of the newly discovered elements have been named without reference to it. We propose here an updated version of the original nomenclature system for all of the various types of prokaryotic, autonomous, transposable elements excluding insertion sequences, for which a nomenclature system already exists. The use of this inclusive and sequential Tn numbering system for transposable elements, as described here, recognizes the ease of interspecies spread of individual elements, and allows for the naming of mosaic elements containing segments from two or more previously described types of transposons or plasmids. It will guard against any future need to rename elements following changes in bacterial nomenclature which occurs constantly with our increased understanding of bacterial phylogenies and taxonomic groupings. It also takes into account the increasing importance of metagenomic sequencing projects and the continued identification of new mobile elements from unknown hosts.
authors.affiliation: Division of Microbial Diseases, UCL Eastman Dental Institute, University College London, 256 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8LD, UK. aroberts@eastman.ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Adam P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chandler
authors.forename: Patrice
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Courvalin
authors.forename: Gérard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guédon
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mullany
authors.forename: Tony
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pembroke
authors.forename: Julian I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Rood
authors.forename: C Jeffery
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Anne O
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Summers
authors.forename: Masataka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tsuda
authors.forename: Douglas E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Berg
mesh_terms: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics*; D009626:Terminology as Topic
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements
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