Coexistence versus collapse in transposon populations

Abstract

Transposons are small, self-replicating DNA sequences found in every branch of life. Often, one transposon will parasitize another, forming a tiny intracellular ecosystem. In some species these ecosystems thrive, while in others they go extinct, yet little is known about when or why this occurs. Here, we present a stochastic model for these ecosystems and discover a transition from stable coexistence to population collapse when the propensity for a transposon to replicate comes to exceed that of its parasites. Our model also predicts that replication rates should be low in equilibrium, which appears to be true of many transposons in nature.