Technical Report abstract


Nature Genetics 41, 946 - 952 (2009)
Published online: 26 July 2009 | doi:10.1038/ng.397

A transposon-based chromosomal engineering method to survey a large cis-regulatory landscape in mice

Chikara Kokubu1,2, Kyoji Horie2, Koichiro Abe3, Ryuji Ikeda2, Sumi Mizuno1, Yoshihiro Uno4, Sanae Ogiwara3, Masato Ohtsuka3, Ayako Isotani5, Masaru Okabe5, Kenji Imai3 & Junji Takeda1,2


A large cis-regulatory landscape is a common feature of vertebrate genomes, particularly at key developmental gene loci with finely tuned expression patterns. Existing genetic tools for surveying large genomic regions of interest spanning over hundreds of kilobases are limited. Here we propose a chromosomal engineering strategy exploiting the local hopping trait of the Sleeping Beauty transposon in the mouse genome. We generated embryonic stem cells with a targeted integration of the transposon vector, carrying an enhancer-detecting lacZ reporter and loxP cassette, into the developmentally critical Pax1 gene locus, followed by efficient local transpositions, nested deletion formation and derivation of embryos by tetraploid complementation. Comparative reporter expression analysis among different insertion/deletion embryos substantially facilitated long-range cis-regulatory element mapping in the genomic neighborhood and demonstrated the potential of the transposon-based approach as a versatile tool for exploration of defined genomic intervals of functional or clinical relevance, such as disease-associated microdeletions.

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  1. Center for Advanced Science and Innovation, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan.
  2. Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan.
  3. Department of Molecular Life Science, Division of Basic Medical Science and Molecular Medicine, Tokai University School of Medicine, Isehara, Kanagawa, Japan.
  4. Experimental Animal Science, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan.
  5. Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan.

Correspondence to: Chikara Kokubu1,2 e-mail: ckokubu@mr-envi.med.osaka-u.ac.jp

Correspondence to: Junji Takeda1,2 e-mail: takeda@mr-envi.med.osaka-u.ac.jp



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