Mob Genet Elements. 2014 Jun 23;4:e29591. doi: 10.4161/mge.29591. eCollection 2014.
Mobile genetic elements
Yujia Cai, Jacob Giehm Mikkelsen
PMID: 25057443 PMCID: PMC4092313 DOI: 10.4161/mge.29591
Gene vectors derived from DNA transposable elements have become powerful molecular tools in biomedical research and are slowly moving into the clinic as carriers of therapeutic genes. Conventional uses of DNA transposon-based gene vehicles rely on the intracellular production of the transposase protein from transfected nucleic acids. The transposase mediates mobilization of the DNA transposon, which is typically provided in the context of plasmid DNA. In recent work, we established lentiviral protein transduction from Gag precursors as a new strategy for direct delivery of the transposase protein. Inspired by the natural properties of infecting viruses to carry their own enzymes, we loaded lentivirus-derived particles not only with vector genomes carrying the DNA transposon vector but also with hundreds of transposase subunits. Such particles were found to drive efficient transposition of the
Keywords: DNA transposition; IDLV; Sleeping Beauty; lentiviral vector; piggyBac; protein transduction