Given Starship elements are generally found in only a single copy in a genome, whereas other TEs are almost universally multicopy.
Cargo genes can have important impacts of host phenotypes, including plant pathogenicity, heavy metal resistance, and cheese production.
These include: the region containing the ToxA plant effector gene from Pyrenophora tritici-repentis, Wallaby and CheesyTer from species of Penicillium used in cheese production, and segmental duplications in the human fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus.
[1] Starships lack the large structural features that comprise other TEs, such as terminal inverted repeats (TIRs) and do not create target site duplications (TSDs) when they transpose, as the recombinase activity does not generate sticky ends.
Some Starships possess short asymmetric TIRs, which are often imperfect, but it is unclear if these are an absolute requirement for delineating the element's boundaries.
The transfer of genes with adaptive functions via mobile genetic elements is well established in prokaryotes, where it is important for phenomena such as antimicrobial resistance.