Transposon tools hopping in vertebrates

Abstract

In the past decade, tools derived from DNA transposons have made major contributions to vertebrate genetic studies from gene delivery to gene discovery. Multiple, highly complementary systems have been developed, and many more are in the pipeline. Judging which DNA transposon element will work the best in diverse uses from zebrafish genetic manipulation to human gene therapy is currently a complex task. We have summarized the major transposon vector systems active in vertebrates, comparing and contrasting known critical biochemical and in vivo properties, for future tool design and new genetic applications.

Continuing analysis of microRNA origins

“…[32][33][34] DNA transposons are generally flanked by simple inverted repeats and consist of at least two genes encoding the proteins necessary for making and inserting DNA copies of itself elsewhere in the genome. 34 In agreement with our earlier findings, DNA transposons were responsible for the formation of the largest number of definable miR loci in our analysis (517 origins) with related satellite DNA repeats being responsible for the formation of nine additional miR loci. The next largest number of definable miR loci in our analysis corresponded to miRs formed from non-LTR retrotransposons which contain genes encoding gag and pol-like ORFs.…”

Comprehensive analysis of microRNA genomic loci identifies pervasive repetitive-element origins

“…Transposable elements fall into three principle categories: DNA transposons, long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons and non-LTR retrotransposons (recently reviewed in refs. [34][35][36]. DNA transposons are flanked by inverted repeats and typically contain two or more open reading frames (ORFs) corresponding to the proteins required for making copies of their sequences and distributing them through the genome (reviewed in ref.…”

Transpo-mAb display: Transposition-mediated B cell display and functional screening of full-length IgG antibody libraries

“…17,19,44,45 The PiggyBac transposon has been reported to be capable of moving DNA elements as large as 100kb in mammalian genomes, 46 and large elements up to 14kb are transposed without apparent loss of efficiency, 47 whereas SleepingBeauty transposition efficiency drastically decreases with size. 48 These observations are consistent with Figure 7.…”

“…16 It would be interesting to determine whether our technology can be transferred to other widely established cell lines such as Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) or HEK293T, and to investigate the extent to which different host cell lines would be beneficial in terms of the library sizes that could be generated and screened, the ratio of membrane-bound vs. secreted IgG that could be achieved with these non-B cell lines, and finally how the properties of the isolated antibodies compare with antibodies isolated from the B cell host cell line employed here. Importantly, PiggyBac seems to be active in a wide range of mammalian cell lines, 45,52,53 and thus could in principle be applied to other cell systems of choice.…”