简介：MITEs(Miniatureinverted-repeattransposableelements)arereminiscenceofnon-autonomousDNA(classⅡ)elements,whicharedistinguishedfromothertranspos-ableelementsbytheirsmallsize,shortterminalinvertedrepeats(TIRs),highcopynumbers,genicpreference,andDNAsequenceidentityamongfamilymembers.Al-thoughMITEswerefirstdiscoveredinplantsandstillactivelyreshapinggenomes,theyhavebeenisolatedfromawiderangeofeukaryoticorganisms.MITEscanbedividedintoTourist-like,Stowaway-like,andpogo-likegroups,accordingtosimilaritiesoftheirTIRsandTSDs(targetsiteduplications).Indespiteofsev-eralmodelstoexplaintheoriginandamplificationofMITEs,theirmechanismsoftranspositionandaccumulationineukaryoticgenomesremainpoorlyunderstoodowingtoinsufficientexperimentaldata.TheuniquepropertiesofMITEshavebeenexploitedasusefulgenetictoolsforplantgenomeanalysis.UtilizationofMITEsaseffectiveandinformativegenomicmarkersandpotentialapplicationofMITEsinplantssystematic,phylogenetic,andgeneticstudiesarediscussed.