植物转座子及其在番茄功能基因组的应用

转座子作为插入突变原或分子标签被广泛应用于基因的分离和克隆,已成为发现新基因和基因功能分析的有效工具。该文综述了植物转座子及其在基因分离中的研究进展,并讨论其在番茄功能基因遗传资源、功能基因组分离等研究中的应用。     

插入诱变在拟南芥基因克隆中的应用

随着各种基因克隆方法的建立 ,克隆的拟南芥基因越来越多 ,其中转座子标签和T DNA插入诱变克隆的拟南芥基因的数目最多 ,插入诱变已成为克隆和鉴定很多重要植物基因的方法。     

Mutator转座子及MULE在植物基因与基因组进化中的作用

Mutator（Mu）转座子是植物中已发现的转座最活跃的转座子,其高的转座频率及趋向于单拷贝功能基因转座的特性,使该转座子成为玉米功能基因克隆的主要方法.Mu转座子的同源类似因子广泛存在于被子植物基因组中,而且同一基因组中往往具有多种变异类型.它不仅具有其他DNA转座子在基因和基因组进化中的普遍作用,而且具有能够承载基因组内功能基因和基因片段的载体功能,这种载体Mu转座子（Pack-MuLEs）能够在基因组内移动众多的基因片段,从而对基因和基因组进化产生作用.Mu转座子的同源序列发生在水稻与狗尾草之间的水平转移提供了高等植物核基因水平转移的首个例证.对Mu转座子的了解促进了我们对动态基因组概念的认识.文章对Mutator转座子的发现、转座特征、基因标签应用等的研究进展进行了综述,对Mu转座子家族的同源序列进行了分类,讨论了该转座子在基因组进化中的作用,分析了应加强研究的问题.     

转座酶的人工改造与修饰

转座子是基因组中能发生移动和自主复制的DNA片段,随着人们在分子水平上对转座子结构和功能认识的不断深化,许多转座子已被改造为遗传分析的工具应用于基因功能分析、基因转化和基因治疗。然而,天然转座子的转座能力不高是转座子的开发和利用的主要障碍,近几年来,科学家们运用生物信息学和蛋白质工程相结合的方法来构建活性的转座酶,通过氨基酸优化的方法获得自然界不存在的超活性的转座酶,显著地提高了转座子的转座效率,应用于植物转基因和基因标签技术;另一方面,通过蛋白质融合技术构建转座酶嵌合体,改造转座子插入特性,实现其插入位点的人工调控,应用于基因治疗。     

转座子标签及其在酿酒酵母基因功能研究中的应用

转座子标签(transposontagging)技术是研究功能基因的有效的工具之一。介绍了几种在酿酒酵母(Saccharomycescerevisiae)基因功能研究中应用的转座子标签:mTn3标签、miniMu噬菌体标签和Ty转座子标签,阐述了转座子标签的构建原理、应用策略和转座子标签插入位点的鉴定方法。     

水稻转座子研究进展

转座子是植物基因组的重要组成部分,对于研究植物基因组进化等具有重要意义。随着水稻全基因组测序计划的开展和完成,水稻转座子研究取得了极大进展,目前已经在水稻基因组中发现了几乎所有类型的转座子,约占水稻基因组的35%。在正常情况下,大多数水稻转座子不具有转座活性,但是在特定的条件下（如组织培养或辐射等）,水稻基因组中沉默的转座子可以被激活,从而可能导致插入突变并影响基因的表达。在水稻中已鉴定出6个有活性的转座子,其中Tos17已被应用到水稻功能基因组研究中。转座子序列的新的分子标记转座子展示（transposon display,TD）现已被开发,并在水稻遗传作图和遗传分化研究中得到应用。     

水稻转座子研究进展

转座子是植物基因组的重要组成部分, 对于研究植物基因组进化等具有重要意义。随着水稻全基因组测序计划的开展和完成, 水稻转座子研究取得了极大进展, 目前已经在水稻基因组中发现了几乎所有类型的转座子, 约占水稻基因组的35%。在正常情况下, 大多数水稻转座子不具有转座活性, 但是在特定的条件下(如组织培养或辐射等), 水稻基因组中沉默的转座子可以被激活, 从而可能导致插入突变并影响基因的表达。在水稻中已鉴定出6个有活性的转座子, 其中Tos17已被应用到水稻功能基因组研究中。转座子序列的新的分子标记转座子展示(transposon display, TD)现已被开发, 并在水稻遗传作图和遗传分化研究中得到应用     

显性插入突变载体的设计

显性插入突变载体的设计陆建荣,金振华（中国科学院发育生物所,北京１０００８０）当可移动的ＤＮＡ片段（如转座子）插入到基因组其它基因座位,破坏了后者表达所需的完整性时,就产生了插入突变效应。由于插入的ＤＮＡ可以作为内置的标签（ｂｕｉｌｔ－ｉｎｔａｇ）,使得分离相应的基因极为简便。近年来插入突变在高等真核生物研究中得到广泛的应用,［１］除转座子外,一些转基因载体如动物的逆病毒载体,植物农杆菌的Ｔi或Ri质粒都能将外源DNA稳定整合到宿主基因组,也成为极有用的插人突变载体。     

最小基因组研究进展

随着许多生物体全基因组测序的完成,兴起了最小基因组的研究,即一个能营独立生活的生物体最少需要多少个基因。已知最小细胞支原体基因组是研究最小基因组的重要内容,还通过比较多种已测序基因组COG分析最小基因组,目前通过转座子插入基因突主为和同源重组删除基因的分析,进行最小基因组研究。     

根瘤菌共生固氮的遗传学研究(二)

2.在根瘤菌研究中成功地运用了转座子诱变技术。转座子(Transposon)是一种特殊的DNA短片段,它带有抗药性基因,并具有在DNA复制子之间转座插入的能力,转座的发生并不需要recA基因产物,一些转座子象Tn 5的转座插入位点的分布是相当随机的,但另一些象Tn 10,它的转座插入似乎具有“热点”(Hot spot),转座子插入到一个新位点时,被插入位点原基因的连续性受到阻断,因而该基因的功     

Emergence of antibiotic-resistant extremophiles (AREs)

Excessive use of antibiotics in recent years has produced bacteria that are resistant to a wide array of antibiotics. Several genetic and non-genetic elements allow microorganisms to adapt and thrive under harsh environmental conditions such as lethal doses of antibiotics. We attempt to classify these microorganisms as antibiotic-resistant extremophiles (AREs). AREs develop strategies to gain greater resistance to antibiotics via accumulation of multiple genes or plasmids that harbor genes for multiple drug resistance (MDR). In addition to their altered expression of multiple genes, AREs also survive by producing enzymes such as penicillinase that inactivate antibiotics. It is of interest to identify the underlying molecular mechanisms by which the AREs are able to survive in the presence of wide arrays of high-dosage antibiotics. Technologically, "omics"-based approaches such as genomics have revealed a wide array of genes differentially expressed in AREs. Proteomics studies with 2DE, MALDI-TOF, and MS/MS have identified specific proteins, enzymes, and pumps that function in the adaptation mechanisms of AREs. This article discusses the molecular mechanisms by which microorganisms develop into AREs and how "omics" approaches can identify the genetic elements of these adaptation mechanisms. These objectives will assist the development of strategies and potential therapeutics to treat outbreaks of pathogenic microorganisms in the future.     

Applying landscape genetics to the microbial world

Landscape genetics, which explicitly quantifies landscape effects on gene flow and adaptation, has largely focused on macroorganisms, with little attention given to microorganisms. This is despite overwhelming evidence that microorganisms exhibit spatial genetic structuring in relation to environmental variables. The increasing accessibility of genomic data has opened up the opportunity for landscape genetics to embrace the world of microorganisms, which may be thought of as ‘the invisible regulators’ of the macroecological world. Recent developments in bioinformatics and increased data accessibility have accelerated our ability to identify microbial taxa and characterize their genetic diversity. However, the influence of the landscape matrix and dynamic environmental factors on microorganism genetic dispersal and adaptation has been little explored. Also, because many microorganisms coinhabit or codisperse with macroorganisms, landscape genomic approaches may improve insights into how micro‐ and macroorganisms reciprocally interact to create spatial genetic structure. Conducting landscape genetic analyses on microorganisms requires that we accommodate shifts in spatial and temporal scales, presenting new conceptual and methodological challenges not yet explored in ‘macro’‐landscape genetics. We argue that there is much value to be gained for microbial ecologists from embracing landscape genetic approaches. We provide a case for integrating landscape genetic methods into microecological studies and discuss specific considerations associated with the novel challenges this brings. We anticipate that microorganism landscape genetic studies will provide new insights into both micro‐ and macroecological processes and expand our knowledge of species’ distributions, adaptive mechanisms and species’ interactions in changing environments.     

Use of transposon promoter-probe vectors in the metabolic engineering of the obligate methanotroph Methylomonas sp. strain 16a for enhanced C40 carotenoid synthesis

The recent expansion of genetic and genomic tools for metabolic engineering has accelerated the development of microorganisms for the industrial production of desired compounds. We have used transposable elements to identify chromosomal locations in the obligate methanotroph Methylomonas sp. strain 16a that support high-level expression of genes involved in the synthesis of the C(40) carotenoids canthaxanthin and astaxanthin. with three promoterless carotenoid transposons, five chromosomal locations-the fliCS, hsdM, ccp-3, cysH, and nirS regions-were identified. Total carotenoid synthesis increased 10- to 20-fold when the carotenoid gene clusters were inserted at these chromosomal locations compared to when the same carotenoid gene clusters were integrated at neutral locations under the control of the promoter for the gene conferring resistance to chloramphenicol. A chromosomal integration system based on sucrose lethality was used to make targeted gene deletions or site-specific integration of the carotenoid gene cluster into the Methylomonas genome without leaving genetic scars in the chromosome from the antibiotic resistance genes that are present on the integration vector. The genetic approaches described in this work demonstrate how metabolic engineering of microorganisms, including the less-studied environmental isolates, can be greatly enhanced by identifying integration sites within the chromosome of the host that permit optimal expression of the target genes.     

Leveraging Functional-Annotation Data in Trans-ethnic Fine-Mapping Studies

Localization of causal variants underlying known risk loci is one of the main research challenges following genome-wide association studies. Risk loci are typically dissected through fine-mapping experiments in trans-ethnic cohorts for leveraging the variability in the local genetic structure across populations. More recent works have shown that genomic functional annotations (i.e., localization of tissue-specific regulatory marks) can be integrated for increasing fine-mapping performance within single-population studies. Here, we introduce methods that integrate the strength of association between genotype and phenotype, the variability in the genetic backgrounds across populations, and the genomic map of tissue-specific functional elements to increase trans-ethnic fine-mapping accuracy. Through extensive simulations and empirical data, we have demonstrated that our approach increases fine-mapping resolution over existing methods. We analyzed empirical data from a large-scale trans-ethnic rheumatoid arthritis (RA) study and showed that the functional genetic architecture of RA is consistent across European and Asian ancestries. In these data, we used our proposed methods to reduce the average size of the 90% credible set from 29 variants per locus for standard non-integrative approaches to 22 variants.     

Evidence for genetic drift in the diversification of a geographically isolated population of the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus

Genetic drift is a mechanism of population divergence that is important in the evolution of plants and animals but is thought to be rare in free-living microorganisms because of their typically large population sizes and unrestricted means of dispersal. We used both phylogenetic and insertion sequence (IS) element analyses in hyperthermophilic archaea of the genus Pyrococcus to test the hypothesis that genetic drift played an important role in the diversification of these microorganisms. Multilocus sequence typing of a collection of 36 isolates of Pyrococcus, from different hydrothermal systems in the Pacific Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, revealed that Pyrococcus populations from different geographic locations are genetically differentiated. Analysis of IS elements in these isolates exposed their presence in all individuals of only one geographically isolated lineage, that of Vulcano Island in the Mediterranean Sea. Detailed sequence analysis of six selected IS elements in the Vulcano population showed that these elements cause deleterious genomic alterations, including inactivation of gene function. The high frequency of IS elements in the sampled population together with their observed harmful effects in the genome of Pyrococcus provide molecular evidence that the Vulcano Island population of Pyrococcus is geographically isolated and that those genetic mobile elements have been brought up to high frequency by genetic drift. Thus, genetic drift resulting from physical isolation should be considered as a factor influencing differentiation in prokaryotes.     

Integrative genomics of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a complex disease with both environmental and genetic determinants, the most important of which is cigarette smoking. There is marked heterogeneity in the development of COPD among persons with similar cigarette smoking histories, which is likely partially explained by genetic variation. Genomic approaches such as genomewide association studies and gene expression studies have been used to discover genes and molecular pathways involved in COPD pathogenesis; however, these “first generation” omics studies have limitations. Integrative genomic studies are emerging which can combine genomic datasets to further examine the molecular underpinnings of COPD. Future research in COPD genetics will likely use network-based approaches to integrate multiple genomic data types in order to model the complex molecular interactions involved in COPD pathogenesis. This article reviews the genomic research to date and offers a vision for the future of integrative genomic research in COPD.     

Detection of disease-associated deletions in case–control studies using SNP genotypes with application to rheumatoid arthritis

Genomic deletions have long been known to play a causative role in microdeletion syndromes. Recent whole-genome genetic studies have shown that deletions can increase the risk for several psychiatric disorders, suggesting that genomic deletions play an important role in the genetic basis of complex traits. However, the association between genomic deletions and common, complex diseases has not yet been systematically investigated in gene mapping studies. Likelihood-based statistical methods for identifying disease-associated deletions have recently been developed for familial studies of parent-offspring trios. The purpose of this study is to develop statistical approaches for detecting genomic deletions associated with complex disease in case–control studies. Our methods are designed to be used with dense single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotypes to detect deletions in large-scale or whole-genome genetic studies. As more and more SNP genotype data for genome-wide association studies become available, development of sophisticated statistical approaches will be needed that use these data. Our proposed statistical methods are designed to be used in SNP-by-SNP analyses and in cluster analyses based on combined evidence from multiple SNPs. We found that these methods are useful for detecting disease-associated deletions and are robust in the presence of linkage disequilibrium using simulated SNP data sets. Furthermore, we applied the proposed statistical methods to SNP genotype data of chromosome 6p for 868 rheumatoid arthritis patients and 1,197 controls from the North American Rheumatoid Arthritis Consortium. We detected disease-associated deletions within the region of human leukocyte antigen in which genomic deletions were previously discovered in rheumatoid arthritis patients.     

Mechanisms in microbial evolution

Molecular genetic studies with prokaryotic microorganisms reveal that many different molecular processes contribute to the formation of spontaneous mutations. Besides infidelities in DNA replication and the consequences of environmental mutagens, enzyme-mediated DNA rearrangements bring about important, evolutionarily relevant alterations in the genetic information. Particular attention is given in this article to site-specific recombination at secondary crossover sites and to the transposition of mobile genetic elements with relaxed target specificity. Besides these diverse processes of genomic mutation the acquisition of genetic information from other organisms plays an uncontested role in microbial evolution. Enzymes and organelles mediating any of these mutational processes can be looked at as biological functions acting at the level of populations for the needs of biological evolution, rather than to fulfill the needs of individual living organisms.     

Recent advances in large-scale transposon mutagenesis

Transposons were identified as mobile genetic elements over fifty years ago and subsequently became powerful tools for molecular-genetic studies. Recently, transposon-mutagenesis strategies have been developed to identify essential and pathogenicity-related genes in pathogenic microorganisms. Also, a number of in vitro transposition systems have been used to facilitate genome sequence analysis. Finally, transposon mutagenesis of yeast and complex eukaryotes has provided valuable functional genomic information to complement genome-sequencing projects.