Tool Simulates How Jumping Genes Reshape Genomes

Researchers at The Ohio State University have released PrinTE, a publicly available simulator that models how transposable elements evolve across genomes.

Updated on Nov. 3, 2026 in Life Sciences

Bold flat-color editorial illustration of a coiled teal and cream double-helix ribbon with loose cylindrical segments slipping out beside it, evoking genome change. — Researchers at Ohio State University released PrinTE, a free simulator that models how jumping genes evolve and reshape genomes over time. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

Researchers at The Ohio State University created PrinTE, a computational tool that simulates the evolution of transposable elements, commonly called jumping genes, in genomes. The work was described in Nature Communications on November 2, 2026.

Why it matters

Transposable elements can make up a large share of a genome and drive major changes over time, so a tool that models their behavior could help scientists test hypotheses about how genomes evolve. The tool is publicly available and has already been used by scientists studying other systems.

In myrtle rust fungal simulations, transposon insertions occurred 4 to 5 times more often than deletions, and the genome grew to 1 billion base pairs. Up to 85% of the corn genome consists of transposable elements, but the source does not report how closely PrinTE's simulated trajectories match real genome histories.

The players

The Ohio State University

A public research university in Columbus, Ohio, whose researchers developed the PrinTE simulation tool.

The details

PrinTE works from an inferred ancestral genome and evolves it forward to the modern-day genome, testing hypothesized evolutionary paths. The tool was designed as an enhancement of the TEGenomeSimulator tool and uses machine learning to detect and stop simulation trajectories headed in the wrong direction. In its initial case study, the researchers reconstructed a theoretical common ancestor of the present-day myrtle rust genome and ran thousands of simulations to find the best-fitting trajectory.

November 2, 2026: PrinTE is described in Nature Communications.
Millions to tens of millions of years: Timescale over which dense transposon activity shapes genome evolution.

The Big Picture

PrinTE builds directly on the TEGenomeSimulator tool, extending it to model genome evolution forward from an inferred ancestor rather than only simulating transposable element dynamics in isolation. The approach offers a way to test competing explanations for how jumping genes expanded or were suppressed in species such as myrtle rust and corn.

Researchers say this kind of modeling could eventually support genomic rescue approaches that slow transposon activity or remove transposons in species struggling to survive. Those applications remain speculative, and the source describes them only as a possibility for future work.

The takeaway

Computational tools that model jumping genes give scientists a way to test how genomes became packed with transposable elements. Readers interested in genome evolution can follow ongoing research as more species are studied with these methods.