Spontaneous Mutation, Horizontal Transfer, and Sex: Understanding thenEvolution of the Mobilome

Transposable elements (TEs) are now known to occupy a huge proportion of most multicellular eukaryotic genomes, yet the factors influencing their proliferation are only beginning to be investigated. In addition to giving a brief overview of their role in genome evolution, I will discuss recent work on a few important factors (sex, horizontal transfer, and transposition rates) that influence the coevolutionary dynamics between TEs and the host genomes they inhabit.