{"doi":"10.3389/fmolb.2022.992664","title":"Editorial: Genetically mobile elements repurposed by nature and biotechnologists","abstract":"Mobile genetic elements (MGEs), including introns, retroelements, and inteins are present in many microbes. These elements, traditionally considered molecular parasites, reshape genomes and drive evolution. However, non-random distributions within host genomes and response to environmental cues force the rethinking of MGEs as simple parasites, raising questions about the possible importance of these elements to the host organisms they invade (Belfort 2017). Indeed, compelling evidence indicates that nature has repurposed these MGEs with spectacular results, leading to such evolutionary marvels as CRISPR immune systems to protect bacteria from phage, spliceosomal introns and hedgehog signaling. These mobile elements have also proven exceptionally useful to biotechnologists, leading to the development of ground-breaking technologies in genome manipulation, next-generation sequencing, protein engineering, and synthetic biology This Research Topic, which includes one opinion, three original research, and five review articles, provides a contemporary perspective on the numerous areas of interest regarding the biological importance of MGEs to the hosts they invade and also highlights new and exciting applications of these elements by biotechnologists (Figure","journal":"Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences","year":2022,"id":304146,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9575,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":440307,"name":"Brian P. Callahan","orcid":"0000-0003-4826-0162","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":996577,"name":"Benoit Cousineau","orcid":"0000-0001-6748-0182","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":996578,"name":"David R. Edgell","orcid":"0000-0003-3858-6150","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":388076,"name":"Marlene Belfort","orcid":"0000-0002-1592-5618","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":494269,"name":"Christopher W. Lennon","orcid":"0000-0001-9413-180X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":8,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:32:28.468841Z","pmid":"36106021","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}