The topic for my research paper is the role of transposons in generating biological diversity, but I found an article that talks about the possibility that transposons can be used in gene therapy. A transposon is small piece of DNA that inserts itself into another place in the genome. Transposons can interrupt the normal spelling of DNA, creating gene mutations with a variety of effects. They can turn nearby genes off and cause a loss of function, or they can turn genes on causing a gain of function or increasing the amount of protein made.
An ancient transposon in fish referred to as Sleeping Beauty has been reconstructed to possibly be considered in developing efficient and safe vectors for vertebrate transgenesis as well as for human gene therapy. The transposon integrates into the chromosome and provides the basis for long term or possibly permanent transgene expression in transgenic cells and organisms.
The abstract for the article can be found here http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17073604
So what is the significance of this? Why do they call it Sleeping Beauty?
ReplyDeleteIs there a specific organism that this will be tested on first?
ReplyDeleteWhat can we do with these transposons? WHat kind of gene therapy could we do with it? Do you think we could use this in cancer treatments to turn off the genes that are mutated?
ReplyDelete