The whole genome of the gibbons in Southeast Asia was first sequenced in 2014 by the German Primate Center (DPZ) including Christian Roos, Markus Brameier and Lutz Walter along with other international researchers. One of the gibbons that had its genome sequenced is a white-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys, NLE) named Asia. The team found that a jumping DNA element named LAVA transposon (also called gibbon-specific retrotransposon) is unique to the gibbon genome apart from humans and the great apes. The LAVA transposon increases mutation rate and thus is supposed to have contributed to the rapid and greater change in Gibbons in comparison to their close relatives, which is critical for evolutionary development. The very high rate of chromosomal disorder and rearrangements (such as duplications, deletions or inversions of large stretches of DNA) due to the moving of this large DNA segment is one of the key features that are unique to the gibbon genome.