Why TOFU is good for worms

Transposons are DNA sequences that can catalyze their own movement within and between genomes, and are a major source of species diversification. Uncontrolled, however, they are dangerous and can threaten the viability of an organism. In work just published in Nature, Max Perutz Labs group leader Sebastian Falk and his collaborator René Ketting (Institute of Molecular Biology, Mainz, Germany) describe the discovery of a new complex that regulates the activity of transposons in the nematode worm, C. elegans. The work exposes a potential molecular link between innate immune responses to invading pathogens and mechanisms that control transposable elements.