A previously noted connection between MITEs and miRNAs in plants was brought to our attention after the publication of our article on human MITE-derived miRNAs in PLoS ONE. In the paper “Short RNAs can identify new candidate transposable element families in Arabidopsis” (Plant Physiology 2002 Vol. 130 pp.6-9), M. Florian Mette and co-authors describe two examples of families of short RNAs encoded by terminal inverted repeat (TIR) containing repetitive elements. The so-called “40” short RNA family is transcribed from repetitive elements that resemble “degenerate relics of a previously active TE family” although it was not clear at the time of publication whether these sequences had actually transposed. The “175” family of short RNAs was found to be encoded by a novel family of Mutator-like TEs. The “175” family is particularly relevant to our own model of MITEs as an evolutionary intermediates between siRNAs and miRNAs. This is because the sequences that encode the “175” short RNAs represent a heterogeneous set of non-autonomous derivatives of a full length MudrA DNA-type TE, and the short RNAs are encoded by the TIRs of the derivative sequences. This demonstrates the principle that we laid out in our discussion whereby full length DNA-type TEs that encode multiple siRNAs become degraded into short non-autonomous MITEs, which if transcribed can form short hairpins that are processed to yield single mature miRNA sequences. In their discussion, Mette et al. go on to speculate that MITEs inserted nearby host genes may provide target sites for short RNAs produced members of the same TE family. In this way TEs could provide short RNAs and target sites that regulate the expression of host genes.