The use of transposable elements as gene vectors in
insect species leads to questions concerning their interactions with endogenous transposable elements (or other
genes) that may recognize and mobilize the gene vector.
That transposable elements from the same transposable
element family can remobilize one another has been
demonstrated by Sundararajan et al. (1999) who showed,
by using both germ-line and somatic excision assays,
that the hobo and Hermes elements can cross-mobilize
each other when both are present in D. melanogaster.
Indeed this property was used to initially identify the
presence of the Hermes element in M. domestica
(Atkinson et al., 1993)