title: Site-specific recombinases as tools for heterologous gene integration.
abstract: Site-specific recombinases are the enzymes that catalyze site-specific recombination between two specific DNA sequences to mediate DNA integration, excision, resolution, or inversion and that play a pivotal role in the life cycles of many microorganisms including bacteria and bacteriophages. These enzymes are classified as tyrosine-type or serine-type recombinases based on whether a tyrosine or serine residue mediates catalysis. All known tyrosine-type recombinases catalyze the formation of a Holliday junction intermediate, whereas the catalytic mechanism of all known serine-type recombinases includes the 180° rotation and rejoining of cleaved substrate DNAs. Both recombinase families are further subdivided into two families; the tyrosine-type recombinases are subdivided by the recombination directionality, and the serine-type recombinases are subdivided by the protein size. Over more than two decades, many different site-specific recombinases have been applied to in vivo genome engineering, and some of them have been used successfully to mediate integration, deletion, or inversion in a wide variety of heterologous genomes, including those from bacteria to higher eukaryotes. Here, we review the recombination mechanisms of the best characterized recombinases in each site-specific recombinase family and recent advances in the application of these recombinases to genomic manipulation, especially manipulations involving site-specific gene integration into heterologous genomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Biology & Applied Chemistry, College of Engineering, Nihon University, 1 Nakagawara, Tokusada, Tamura-machi, Koriyama, Fukushima 963-8642, Japan. nhirano@chem.ce.nihon-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Nobutaka
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hirano
authors.forename: Tetsurou
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Muroi
authors.forename: Hideo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Mitsuru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haruki
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000737:chemistry / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000737:chemistry / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D004254:DNA Nucleotidyltransferases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000737:chemistry / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D018390:Gene Targeting / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D011995:Recombination, Genetic
chemical_list: D004254:DNA Nucleotidyltransferases; C077570:Site-specific recombinase