In gene transposition an entire gene works as a transposon and transposes itself to the beginning of the chromosome. In contrast to the other forms of transposition, in gene transposition, the transposon (the gene) is deleted at the place of origin.

The gene transposition operator randomly chooses the chromosome to be modified and then randomly chooses one of its genes (except the first, obviously) to transpose. Consider the following chromosome composed of three genes:

Suppose gene 3 was chosen to undergo gene transposition. In this case the following chromosome is obtained:

Apparently, gene transposition is only capable of shuffling genes and, for sub-ETs linked by commutative functions, this contributes nothing to adaptation in the short run. Note, however, that when the sub-ETs are linked by a non-commutative function, the order of the genes matters and, in this case, gene transposition becomes a macromutator. However, gene transposition becomes particularly interesting when it is used in conjunction with recombination, for it allows not only the duplication of genes but also a more generalized shuffling of genes or smaller building blocks.