ABSTRACT
Conservation not only allows us to confront issues threatening biodiversity but also to develop priorities and programs to better manage our natural resources. The evolution of mankind has always been intricately linked to the exploitation of natural plant resources. Transposable elements are present in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms, and were originally discovered in plants because of mutagenic activity associated with the mobility of the elements. Transposition of retroelements involves a ribonucleic acid intermediate resulting from the transcription of the inserted mother copy. Transposable elements can be exploited to evaluate genetic diversity, because the transposition activity of elements generates genetic variation in the form of heritable insertion polymorphisms. Transposable elements have been shown to acquire and fuse fragments of cellular genes, creating the raw material for the evolution of new genetic functions. Transposable elements also generate fine-scale mutations and are capable of modifying the expression of cellular genes.
