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Jumping genes also called as transposable elements are the sequences of DNA that shift from one location to another in the genome. These transposable elements were first discovered by Barbara McClintock (geneticist of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) about fifty years ago. Following several decades of research found that the TEs not only jump but are also found in all eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Transposable elements make up to around 90% of the maize genome and about 50% of the genome of humans.

Transposable elements are comparable to integrating viruses as natural transfer vehicles of DNA and also in efficient capability of genomic insertion. The mobility of DNA transposons (class II transposable elements) can be controlled by providing conditionally, the transposase constituent of the transposition reaction. Therefore, desired DNA (such as a therapeutic gene construct, a fluorescent marker or a small hairpin RNA expression cassette) that is cloned in between the inverted repeat sequences (IR sequences) of a transposon based vector can be utilized for efficient genomic insertion in a highly stable and regulated manner. This technique has created many opportunities for genetic manipulation in vertebrates such as transgenesis (to produce transgenic cells in tissue culture), in the creation of germline transgenic animals for fundamental and applied research and also to treat genetic disorders in human beings. The first transposon that was capable of transferring gene in vertebrate cells was Sleeping Beauty (SB). And the current data supports a whole spectrum of genetic engineering with SB including, insertional mutagenesis, transgenesis and therapeutic gene transfer both in vivo and ex vivo.

Genetic engineering mediated by transposons is also useful in studying physiology and pathogenesis of bacteria in living hosts. As randomly inserted transposons are important tools in various applications such as STM (signature-tagged mutagenesis), genetic footprinting, cDNA or DNA sequencing, SLM (scanning linker mutagenesis) and transposon site hybridization or TraSH.