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Target Discovery and Validation Reviews and Protocols

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Transgenic Models 167<br />

2.1.3. Use of Transposons<br />

Transposons are mobile DNA fragments that integrate genomes with high<br />

efficiency. The gene of interest can replace the transposase gene of the transposons.<br />

This replacement prevents the recombinant transposons from being<br />

disseminated in an uncontrolled manner. This implies that transposase or a gene<br />

coding for this enzyme is coinjected with the transposon to allow its integration.<br />

Transposon P is currently used to generate transgenic Drosophila. Different<br />

transposons have been designed to be able to transfer genes in a variety of<br />

species. The transposon Mariner proved efficient to generate transgenic chickens<br />

<strong>and</strong> medaka. The transposon Sleeping Beauty works in mammals as in medaka<br />

(9). In silkworm, a specific transposon, Piggy Bac, is being used successfully<br />

(10). These transposons are not significantly complemented by endogenous transposons,<br />

<strong>and</strong> they do not disseminate in host genomes. One of the limitations of<br />

this technique is that transposons can harbor only 2 or 3 kilobases (kb) of foreign<br />

DNA <strong>and</strong> that cellular mechanisms recognize these foreign sequences <strong>and</strong><br />

may silence the transgenes. Research for improving the use of transposons are<br />

underway (11,12).<br />

2.1.4. Use of Viral Vectors<br />

Retroviral vectors have been extensively studied to become a tool for gene<br />

therapy in humans. However, the success with this tool is limited. Yet, retroviral<br />

vectors allowed several immunodeficient children to leave their protective bubbles.<br />

The efficiency of retroviral vectors has been greatly improved by using<br />

lentiviral genomes <strong>and</strong> vesicular somatitis virus (VSV) envelope (13). Lentiviral<br />

vectors have the advantage of transferring their DNA to the nucleus at any stage<br />

of the cell cycle. The VSV envelope recognizes any animal cell type, including<br />

oocytes <strong>and</strong> embryos with high efficiency, <strong>and</strong> it allows the preparation of concentrated<br />

viral vectors (Fig. 2).<br />

Retroviral vectors were originally used to generate transgenic chickens.<br />

Transgenic monkeys also were obtained with conventional retroviral vectors (14).<br />

Lentiviral vectors have greatly improved this tool. Transgenic chickens (15),<br />

pigs (16), sheep (17), <strong>and</strong> cows (18) have been generated in this way much more<br />

easily than with DNA microinjection or with conventional retroviral vectors<br />

(19,20). For unknown reasons, attempts to generate transgene monkeys have not<br />

been successful so far (21). Commercial kits are available to generate efficient<br />

<strong>and</strong> safe recombinant lentiviral particles, but care must be taken to manipulate<br />

the recombinant particles, especially when the foreign genes are oncogenes or<br />

are involved in cell multiplication, apoptosis, or signal transduction to cells.<br />

Interestingly, foreign genes transferred by lentiviral vectors are generally well<br />

expressed, as opposed to those added to conventional retroviral vectors. This

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