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Mol Cell Biochem (2011) 354:301309 DOI 10.1007/s11010-011-0832-3
Size matters: versatile use of PiggyBac transposons as a genetic manipulation tool
Adele Kim Ilmari Pyykko
Received: 5 January 2011 / Accepted: 15 April 2011 / Published online: 23 April 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2011
Abstract Transposons have been promising elements for gene integration, and the Sleeping Beauty (SB) system has been the major one for many years, although there have been several other transposon systems available, for example, Tol2. However, recently another system known as PiggyBac (PB) has been introduced and developed for fullling the same purposes, for example, mutagenesis, transgenesis and gene therapy and in some cases with improved transposition efciency and advantages over the Sleeping Beauty transposon system, although improved hyperactive transposase has highly increased the transposition efcacy for SB. The PB systems have been used in many different scientic research elds; therefore, the purpose of this review is to describe some of these versatile uses of the PiggyBac system to give readers an overview on the usage of PiggyBac system.
Keywords PiggyBac Sleeping Beauty Transposon
Vector Forward genetics Genetic tool
AbbreviationsTR Terminal repeatIR Internal repeatORF Open reading framePEI PolyethylenimineES Embryonic stemMLV Murine leukemia virusHIV Human immunodeciency virus DBD DNA-binding domainNLS Nuclear localization signal
Introduction
DNA transposons and retrotransposons constitute a major component of repetitive sequences in eukaryotes [1, 2]. Their movement around the host genome has been partially responsible for the current genomes. DNA transposons are genetic elements that can relocate between genomic sites by a cut and paste mechanism and these elements have been used for functional genomics in different organisms [3, 4]. Many different types of transposon systems for mammalian gene transfer are as follows: hAT-like Tol2, the only naturally active vertebrate transposon, isolated from the genome of the Japanese medaka sh; two Tcl-like transposons, Sleeping Beauty (SB) and Frog Prince, reconstructed from inactive transposons of sh and frog genomes, respectively; and the PiggyBac isolated from the cabbage looper moth Trichoplusia ni [58]. Among these transposon systems, SB has gained until recently the leading position in transgenesis and mutagenesis.
Sleeping Beauty was the rst DNA transposon system shown to be functional in mammalian cells, and it has been used for insertional mutagenesis in some rodent germ lines [9, 10]; however, its...