text: Transposable elements (transposons, TEs, jumping genes) are short strands of repetitive DNA that can self-replicate and translocate within the eukaryotic genome, and are generally perceived as parasitic in nature. Their transcription can lead to the production of dsRNAs (double-stranded RNAs), which resemble retroviruses transcripts. While most host cellular RNA has a singular, unpaired sense strand, dsRNA possesses sense and anti-sense transcripts paired together, and this difference in structure allows an host organism to detect dsRNA production, and thereby the presence of transposons. Plants lack distinct divisions between somatic cells and reproductive cells, and also have, generally, larger genomes than animals, making them an intriguing case-study kingdom to be used in attempting to better understand the epigenetics function of transposable elements.