This brain gene can move through human DNA — and scientists found it inside a virus

Scientists have identified a human gene with an unusual double life: it appears to perform a biological function in brain cells while retaining the ability to move around the genome.

The gene, known as BC200, has an evolutionary history that makes the discovery particularly unusual. It originated millions of years ago from a piece of mobile DNA called a transposon, or “jumping gene”. Most transposon-derived sequences that became part of useful genes eventually lost their ability to move.