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It is clearly important to construct a suitable naming system for biological objects such as transposable elements since it should provide a framework for understanding what they are (e.g. IS – Insertion Sequence; Tn – Transposon; In - integron), where they were initially identified (e.g. ISEc – Escherichia coli; ISSfl – Shigella flexneri) and of the particular type (ISEc1, 2, 3, 4…) which allows them to be identified when in multiple copies in a large population of different TE in a particular host, strain, species, or genera. Grouping them into families, even though these may change with time and further knowledge (e.g. IS4; Palmenaer et al.,)[1], also provides information on their relationship with one another. A robust classification system is important since specific properties of one IS in a family are inferred to be shared by other closely related IS in the same family facilitating understanding transposition mechanisms and the way in which closely related IS from different genomes might impact their host genomes. In cases where, for technical reasons, certain experiments cannot be undertaken with one member of a family, its behavior in shaping its host chromosome or plasmid can often be inferred from knowledge of that of other members of the family.
