Abstract
Tc1/mariner transposons are widespread in the eukaryotes. In vitro transposition test indicated that the transposase is the only protein that is needed in transpositions. It was shown later that the reconstructed Tc1-like transposon, “sleeping beauty” in fish, and the Tc1 transposon in C. elegans jumps in human cells. This discovery indicates that the Tc1/mariner transposon may be engineered as a somatic gene therapy vector if coupled with an efficient gene delivery system. We introduced the Tc1 transposon from C. elegans into different mammalian cell lines and detected the transposition events, indicating that Tc1 transposon functions in different mammalian cells. Interestingly, a high inversion frequency of the transposon was also detected, suggesting that this type of transposon may add variations to host genome when it is horizontally transferred into a new species.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
LITERATURE CITED
Kidwell, M.G., and Lisch, D. (1997). Transposable elements as sources of variation in animals and plants. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 94:7704–7711.
Calvi, B.R., Hong, T.J., Findley, S.D., and Gelbart, W.M. (1991). Evidence for a common evolutionary origin of inverted repeat transposons in Drosophila and plants: hobo, Activator, and Tam3. Cell. 66:465–471.
Robertson, H.M. (1995). The Tc1-mariner superfamily of transposons in animals. J. Insect Physiol. 41:99–105.
Henikoff, S. (1992). Detection of Caenorhabditis transposon homologs in diverse organism. New Biol. 4:382–388.
Radice, A.D., Bugaj, B., Fitch, D.H.A., and Emmons, S.W. (1994). Widespread occurrence of the Tc1 transposon family: Tc1-like transposons from teleost fish. Mol. & Gen. Genet. 244:606–612.
Plasterk, R.H.A. (1995). In: Transposable elements (ed. H. Saedler and A. Gierl). Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany.
Morgan, G.T. (1995). Identification in the human genome of mobile elements spread by DNA-mediated transposition. J. Mol. Biol. 254:1–5.
Smit, A.F., and Riggs, A.D. (1996). Tiggers and other DNA transposon fossils in the human genome. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 1443–1448.
Vos, J.C., Baere, I.D., and Plasterk, R.H.A. (1996). Transposase is the only nematode protein required for in vitro transposition of Tc1. Genes & Dev. 10:755–761.
Polard, P., and Chandler, M. (1995). Bacterial transposases and retroviral integrases. Mol. Microbiol. 15:13–23.
Hartl, D.L., Lozovvskaya, F.A., Nurminsky, D.I., and Lohe, A.R. (1997). What restricts the activity of mariner-like transposable elements? Trends in Genetics 13:197–201.
Craig, N.L. (1995). Unity in transposition reactions. Science 270:253–254.
Craig, R. (1998). Retrovirus: Transposons that move from cell to cell. Meeting report in Eighteenth International Congress of Genetics, 2S15. Beijing, China.
Zhang, L., Sankar, U., Lampe, D.J., Robertson, H.M., and Graham, F.L. (1998). The Himarl mariner transposase cloned in a recombinant adenovirus vector is functional in mammalian cells. Nucleic Acids Res. 26:3687–3693.
Ivics, Z., Hackett, P.B., Plasterk, R.H.A., and Izsvk, Z. (1997). Molecular reconstruction of sleeping beauty, a tc1-like transposon from fish, and its transposition in human cells. Cell. 91:501–510.
Schouten, G.J., Van Luenen, H.G.A.M., Verra, N.C.V., Valerio, D., and Plasterk, R.H.A. (1998). Transposon Tc1 of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans jumps in human cells. Nucleic Acids Res. 26:3013–3017.
Luo, G., Ivics, Z., Izsvak, Z., and Bradley, A. (1998). Chromosomal transposition of a Tc1/mariner-like element in mouse embryonic stem cells. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 95:10769–10773.
Vos, J.C., Van Luenen, H.G.A.M., and Plasterk, R.H.A. (1993). Characterization of the Caenorhabditis elegans Tc1 transposase in vivo and in vitro. Genes & Dev. 7:1244–1253.
Lake-Bullock, H., and Dailey, H.A. (1993). Biphasic ordered induction of heme synthesis in differentiating murine erythroleukemia cells: role of erythroid 5-aminolevulinate synthase. Mol. Cell Biol. 13:7122–7132.
Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E.F., and Maniatis, T. (1989). In: Molecular cloning: A Laboratory Manual, Vol. 1, pp. 9.14–9.30. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York.
Triglia, T., Peterson, M.G., and Kemp, D.J. (1988). A procedure for in vitro amplification of DNA segments that lie outside the boundaries of knowing sequences. Nucleic Acids Res. 16:8186.
Ayares, D., Chekuri, L., Song, K.Y., and Kucherlapati, R. (1986). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 83:5199–5203.
Berg, D.E. (1980). Control of gene expression by a mobile recombinational switch. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 77:4880–4884.
Rubnitz, J., and Subramani, S. (1985). Rapid assay for extrachromosomal homologous recombination in monkey cells. Mol. Cell. Biol. 5:529–537.
Bollag, R.J., Waldman, A.S., and Liskay, R.M. (1989). Homologous recombination in mammalian cells. Annu. Rev. Genet. 23:199–225.
Rio, D.C., Barnes, G., Laski, F.A., Rine, J., and Rubin, G.M. (1988). Evidence for Drosophila P element transposase activity in mammalian cells and yeast. J. Mol. Biol. 200:411–415.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Li, ZH., Liu, DP., Wang, J. et al. Inversion and Transposition of Tc1 Transposon of C. elegans in Mammalian Cells. Somat Cell Mol Genet 24, 363–369 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024494508878
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024494508878