The bacterium Escherichia coli has been well-justified as an effective workhorse for industrial applications. In this study, we developed a toolkit flexible genome engineering of microorganism, including site-specific insertion heterologous genes and inactivation endogenous genes, such that bacterial hosts can be effectively engineered biomanufacturing. We first constructed base strain by genom...

We have extended the method of transposon mutagenesis to the eukaryote, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A bacterial transposon containing a selectable yeast gene can be transposed into a cloned fragment of yeast DNA in Escherichia coli, and the transposon insertion can be returned to the yeast genome by homologous recombination. Initially, the cloned yeast DNA fragment to be mutagenized was transform...

The Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposase is the most active transposase in vertebrate cells, and the SB transposon system has been used as a tool for insertional mutagenesis and gene delivery. Previous studies have indicated that the frequency of chromosomal transposition is considerably higher in mouse germ cells than in mouse embryonic stem cells, suggesting the existence of unknown mechanisms th...

The Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon is a non-viral integrating vector system with proven efficacy for gene transfer and functional genomics. However, integration efficiency is negatively affected by the length of the transposon. To optimize the SB transposon machinery, the inverted repeats and the transposase gene underwent several modifications, resulting in the generation of the hyperactive S...

DNA based transposon vectors offer a mechanism for non-viral gene delivery into mamma‐ lian and human cells. These vectors work via a cut-and-paste mechanim whereby transpo‐ son DNA containing a transgene(s) of interest is integrated into chromosomal DNA by a transposase enzyme. The first DNA based transposon system which worked efficienty in human cells was sleeping beauty. This was followed a...

Transposon mutagenesis facilitates gene discovery by tagging genes for cloning. New genomics projects are now cataloging transposon insertion sites to define all maize genes. Once identified, transposon insertions are 'hot spots' for generating new alleles that are useful in functional studies.

Transposons are prominent features of most eukaryotic genomes and mobilization of these elements triggers genetic instability. Transposon silencing is particularly critical in the germline, which maintains the heritable genetic complement. Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) have emerged as central players in transposon silencing and genome maintenance during germline development. In particular, res...