Affiliation:
1. Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The
piggyBac
transposon was originally isolated from the cabbage looper moth,
Trichoplusia ni
, in the 1980s. Despite its early discovery and dissimilarity to the other DNA transposon families, the
piggyBac
transposon was not recognized as a member of a large transposon superfamily for a long time. Initially, the
piggyBac
transposon was thought to be a rare transposon. This view, however, has now been completely revised as a number of fully sequenced genomes have revealed the presence of
piggyBac
-like repetitive elements. The isolation of active copies of the
piggyBac
-like elements from several distinct species further supported this revision. This includes the first isolation of an active mammalian DNA transposon identified in the bat genome. To date, the
piggyBac
transposon has been deeply characterized and it represents a number of unique characteristics. In general, all members of the
piggyBac
superfamily use TTAA as their integration target sites. In addition, the
piggyBac
transposon shows precise excision, i.e., restoring the sequence to its preintegration state, and can transpose in a variety of organisms such as yeasts, malaria parasites, insects, mammals, and even in plants. Biochemical analysis of the chemical steps of transposition revealed that
piggyBac
does not require DNA synthesis during the actual transposition event. The broad host range has attracted researchers from many different fields, and the
piggyBac
transposon is currently the most widely used transposon system for genetic manipulations.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Infectious Diseases,Cell Biology,Microbiology (medical),Genetics,General Immunology and Microbiology,Ecology,Physiology
Cited by
64 articles.
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