Stable long-term germline transmission of GFP transgenic rat via PiggyBac transposon mediated gene transfer.

ABSTRACT

Transgene silencing provides a significant challenge in animal model production via gene engineering using viral vectors or transposons. Selecting an appropriate strategy, contingent upon the species is crucial to circumvent transgene silencing, necessitating long-term observation of in vivo gene expression. This study employed the PiggyBac transposon to create a GFP rat model to address transgene silencing in rats. Surprisingly, transgene silencing occurred while using the CAG promoter, contrary to conventional understanding, whereas the Ef1α promoter prevented silencing. GFP expression remained stable through over five generations, confirming efficacy of the Ef1α promoter for long-term protein expression in rats. Additionally, GFP expression was consistently maintained at the cellular level in various cellular sources produced from the GFP rats, thereby validating the in vitro GFP expression of GFP rats. Whole-genome sequencing identified a stable integration site in Akap1 between exons 1 and 2, mitigating sequence-independent mechanism-mediated transgene silencing. This study established an efficient method for producing transgenic rat models using PiggyBac transposon. Our GFP rats represent the first model to exhibit prolonged expression of foreign genes over five generations, with implications for future research in gene-engineered rat models.