Sukkularetrotransposon movements in the human genome

Retrotransposons, a subclass of mobile genetic elements, have been discovered in many organisms. In this study, we identified a plant-specific retrotransposon (Sukkula) in the human genome (24 different DNA samples) by using retrotransposon-based molecular marker technique: inter-retrotransposon amplified polymorphism. There were five different groups related to the ages of the subjects. The polymorphism ratios were 8%–100% among all samples, 10%–91% among females (12 subjects) and 13%–100% among males (12 subjects). Moreover, we also observed 8%–91% polymorphism ratios when comparing males to females. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first reports on plant-specific retrotransposons in the human genome. The obtained findings are expected to contribute to broadening the knowledge about plant retrotransposons in the human genome and their role in human genome evolution.