Site-specific recombinases in genetic engineering: Modern in vivo technologies

A review was conducted over the current achievements in the area of site-specific recombinases (SSR) and their applications for manipulations with pro- and eukaryotic genomes. The principles of SSR functioning and the types of genetic rearrangements catalyzed by SSR were analyzed. The examples given in this review show the SSR potential to solve a wide range of basic and practical problems. To use different methods for solving these problems, however, would be more difficult or even impossible. The main directions for further developing the technology of site-specific recombination are the following: the use of SSR for a wider range of biological systems; generation of the SSR, which are characterized by strictly controlled expression in space and time; and the search for recombinases with new substrate specificity.