Transposon vs. Retrotransposon

Transposonnoun

(genetics) A segment of DNA that can move to a different position within a genome.

Transposonnoun

a segment of DNA that can become integrated at many different sites along a chromosome (especially a segment of bacterial DNA that can be translocated as a whole)

Retrotransposonnoun

(genetics) A transposable fragment of a genome that can undergo retrotransposition.

Retrotransposon

Retrotransposons (also called Class I transposable elements or transposons via RNA intermediates) are a type of genetic component that copy and paste themselves into different genomic locations (transposon) by converting RNA back into DNA through the process reverse transcription using an RNA transposition intermediate.Through reverse transcription, retrotransposons amplify themselves quickly to become abundant in eukaryotic genomes such as maize (49–78%) and humans (42%). They are only present in eukaryotes but share features with retroviruses such as HIV, for example, discontinuous reverse transcriptase-mediated extrachromosomal recombination.There are two main types of retrotransposons, long terminal repeats (LTRs) and non-long terminal repeats (non-LTRs).