title: Application of Minos, one of the Tc1/mariner superfamily transposable elements, to ascidian embryos as a tool for insertional mutagenesis.
abstract: As it has a simple genome structure, Ciona intestinalis is a good chordate species for studying the function of genes. To this end, it is a key requirement to introduce insertional mutagenesis using a transposable element to the ascidian system. The present study focuses on Minos, one of the Tc1/mariner superfamily transposons that is already used in a human cell line. By extrachromosomal excision and transposition assays, we found that Minos activity is very high in C. intestinalis. We also demonstrated the nuclear localization activity of Minos transposase in Ciona embryos. From these tests, we concluded that Minos transposase has complete activity when it is expressed in C. intestinalis, suggesting that Minos has the potential to be used for genome-wide insertional mutagenesis of C. intestinalis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan. sasakura@ascidian.zool.kyoto-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Yasunori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sasakura
authors.forename: Satoko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Awazu
authors.forename: Shota
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chiba
authors.forename: Shungo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kano
authors.forename: Nori
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Satoh
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D002938:Ciona intestinalis / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics*; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics*; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008845:Microinjections; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional / Q000379:methods*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019895:Transposases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D019895:Transposases