Sarkar A, Coates C J, Whyard S, Willhoeft U, Atkinson P W, O'Brochta D A
Center for Agricultural Biotechnology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, College Park 20742-4450, USA.
Genetica. 1997;99(1):15-29. doi: 10.1007/BF02259495.
Transgenic insect technology will provide opportunities to explore the basic biology of a broad range of insect species in ways that will prove insightful and important. It is also a technology that will provide opportunities to manipulate the genotypes of insects of practical significance to the health and welfare of humans. The Hermes transposable element from the housefly, Musca domestica, is a short inverted repeat-type element related to hobo from Drosophila melanogaster, Ac from Zea mays, and Tam3 from Antirrhinum majus. It has potential to become a versatile and efficient broad host-range insect transformation vector. The ability of Hermes to transpose when introduced into five species of diptera from four divergent families was tested using an in vivo, interplasmid transpositional recombination assay. Hermes was capable of transposing in all species tested, demonstrating that Hermes has a broad host-range. In addition, the rates of transposition were sufficiently high in all species tested to suggest that Hermes will be an efficient gene transfer vector in a wide range of insect species. The Hermes element also revealed a pattern of integration into the target substrate that permitted factors determining integration site selection to be identified. Primary nucleotide sequence of the integration site played a role as did proximity to preferred integration sites and the nucleosomal organization of the target.
转基因昆虫技术将提供机会，以富有洞察力且重要的方式探索广泛昆虫物种的基础生物学。它也是一项将为操纵对人类健康和福祉具有实际意义的昆虫基因型提供机会的技术。家蝇（Musca domestica）的赫耳墨斯转座元件是一种短反向重复型元件，与黑腹果蝇的hobo、玉米的Ac以及金鱼草的Tam3相关。它有潜力成为一种通用且高效的广宿主范围昆虫转化载体。使用体内质粒间转座重组试验，测试了将赫耳墨斯导入来自四个不同科的五种双翅目昆虫时其转座的能力。赫耳墨斯能够在所有测试物种中转座，表明它具有广宿主范围。此外，在所有测试物种中转座率都足够高，这表明赫耳墨斯将成为广泛昆虫物种中一种高效的基因转移载体。赫耳墨斯元件还揭示了一种整合到目标底物中的模式，从而使得能够确定决定整合位点选择的因素。整合位点的一级核苷酸序列发挥了作用，靠近首选整合位点以及目标的核小体组织也发挥了作用。
