青鳉Tol2转座子研究进展

Progress of Tol2 Transposable Element in Medaka Fish

转座子作为插入突变源和分子标签被广泛应用于基因的分离和克隆以及基因功能分析,然而至今没有发现非常有效的脊椎动物的转座子。青鳉Tol 2是近年发现的唯一的天然存在且具有转座活性的脊椎动物转座子。Tol 2有可能作为脊椎动物特有的转座子系统,在脊椎动物的基因克隆和基因功能分析方面具有重要的应用前景。文章主要介绍Tol2转座子的结构、转座机制和应用方面的最新研究进展。

As insertional mutagens or molecular tagging, transposons have been widely used for gene isolation, cloning and function study. Most of transposons are from microorganisms and plants. Medaka Tol2 is the only natural active transposon in vertebrate until now, which was found recently and is likely a peculiar transposon system of vertebrate. The structure of Tol 2 transposable element, its transposition mechanism and application, are reviewed in this paper.