Regulation of transposable elements in maize.

Maize is a typical plant with respect to the proportion of its genome that is composed of transposable elements (TEs), but it is unusual in the number of well-characterized active TEs that it hosts. This has made it possible to examine in some detail the factors responsible for regulating the activity of these elements, particularly the means by which they are recognized and epigenetically silenced. That analysis has revealed that TE silencing is a complex process that involves careful distinctions of different developmental times and tissue types. The available evidence from maize and other species suggests that these distinctions are made in order to generate information in somatic tissues that can be used to induce or reinforce silencing in germinal tissues.