Transposons as a genetic tool

Signature-tagging mutagenesis (also known as STM) is a technique focused on using transposable element insertion to determine the phenotype of a locus in an organism's genome.

In STM, specially tagged transposons are inserted into an organism, such as a bacterium, and randomly integrated into the host genome.

Transposon-based Insertional inactivation is considered for medical research from suppression of antibiotic resistance in bacteria to the treatment of genetic diseases.

[6] Genetic researchers Zsuzsanna Izsvák and Zoltán Ivics discovered a fish transposon sequence that, despite being dormant for 15 million years, could be resurrected as a vector for introducing foreign genes into the vertebrate genomes, including those of humans.

[6] Sleeping Beauty can also be viable in gene therapy procedures by helping introduce beneficial transgenes into host genomes.

[6] Belcher et al. began their experiment by constructing a genetic sequence consisting of the Hmox-1 transposable element and transposase from Sleeping Beauty.

The transposase from Sleeping Beauty helped insert the Hmox-1 transposon into the mice genome, allowing the production of enzyme heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1).

The mice that receive the insertion showed a fivefold increase in the expression of HO-1, which in turn reduced blood vessel blockage from sickle-cell anemia.

The recent discovery of the 'mariner transposon' (from the reconstruction of the original sequence from many 'dead' versions in the human genome) has allowed many new experiments, mariner has well conserved homologues across a wide range of species and is a very versatile tool.