'Jumping genes' help stabilize DNA folding patterns

"Jumping genes"—bits of DNA that can move from one spot in the genome to another—are well-known for increasing genetic diversity over the long course of evolution. Now, new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates that such genes, also called transposable elements, play another, more surprising role: stabilizing the 3-D folding patterns of the DNA molecule inside the cell's nucleus.