Independent amplification of two classes of Tourists in some Oryza species

Transposable elements similar to Tourist elements from maize were isolated from the rice genome. The elements were about 300 bp, exhibited short terminal inverted repeats (TIR), and appeared to show preferential insertion at TAA sites. Some rice Tourist elements seem to have recently transposed. Based on the sequences of cloned elements, two classes of rice Tourist elements have been identified. Members of these two classes apparently amplified independently at different times in the past.