玉米Mutator转座子系统的应用及展望

Application and Prospect of Maize Mutator Transposon System

转座子标签法是近年来发展起来的一种非常有效的分子生物技术,是一种利用TEs插入高等植物基因组中造成基因突变,然后通过分离TEs插入的旁邻序列,克隆出突变基因的策略。这种策略在高等植物的功能基因组学研究中十分有用。玉米转座子系统主要有En/Spm系统、Ac/Ds系统和Mutator系统三大类。其中Mutator转座子易于插入到基因内部及基因周围,引起的正向突变频率为10^(-5)~10^(-4),比野生玉米高出近30倍,所引起的突变大部分为隐性突变。由Mutator转座子引起的突变,可以通过TAIL-PCR的方法,对相关的突变基因进行克隆。当前通过这种方法,已经克隆出一些重要的基因。本文主要介绍了Mutator转座子的应用,并对Mutator转座子系统的研究前景进行了展望。

The transposon tagging is a very effective molecular biology technology developed in recent years. It causes gene mutation through TEs insertion into the genomes of higher plants,and then the mutanted genes can be cloned by isolating the flanking sequence of TEs. This strategy is very useful in the study of the functional genomics of higher plants. The main systems of maize transposon are En/Spm,Ac/Ds and Mutator ones. Among them,the Mutator transposon was prone to inserting within or around the gene; the positive mutation frequency was 10^-5～10^-4,which was nearly 30 times higher than that of the wild corn; and most of the mutations were recessive. The mutation can also be cloned by TAIL-PCR. Now by this method,some important genes have been cloned. In this paper,we mainly introduced the application of Mutator system,and discussed the research prospect of Mutator transposon system.