Viruses and transposons are efficient tools for permanently delivering foreign DNA into vertebrate genomes but exhibit diminished activity when cargo exceeds 8 kilobases (kb). This size restriction limits their molecular genetic and biotechnological utility, such as numerous therapeutically relevant genes that exceed 8 kb in size. Furthermore, a greater payload capacity vector would accommodate more sophisticated cis cargo designs to modulate the expression and mutagenic risk of these molecular therapeutics. We show that the Tol2 transposon can efficiently integrate DNA sequences larger than 10 kb into human cells. We characterize minimal sequences necessary for transposition (miniTol2) in vivo in zebrafish and in vitro in human cells. Both the 8.5-kb Tol2 transposon and 5.8-kb miniTol2 engineered elements readily function to revert the deficiency of fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase in an animal model of hereditary tyrosinemia type 1. Together, Tol2 provides a novel nonviral vector for the delivery of large genetic payloads for gene therapy and other transgenic applications.
We describe a conditional in vivo protein trap mutagenesis system that reveals spatio-temporal protein expression dynamics and assesses gene function in the vertebrate Danio rerio. Integration of pGBT-RP2 (RP2), a gene-breaking transposon containing a protein trap, efficiently disrupts gene expression with >97% knockdown of normal transcript levels while simultaneously reporting protein expression of each locus. The mutant alleles are revertible in somatic tissues via Cre recombinase or splice-site blocking morpholinos, thus representing the first systematic conditional mutant alleles outside the mouse model. We report a collection of 350 zebrafish lines including a diverse array of molecular loci. RP2 integrations reveal the complexity of genomic architecture and gene function in a living organism and can provide information on protein subcellular localization. The RP2 mutagenesis system is a step towards a unified codex of protein expression and direct functional annotation of the vertebrate genome.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.