The piggyBac-Based Gene Delivery System Can Confer Successful Production of Cloned Porcine Blastocysts with Multigene Constructs.

The introduction of multigene constructs into single cells is important for improving the performance of domestic animals, as well as understanding basic biological processes. In particular, multigene constructs allow the engineering and integration of multiple genes related to xenotransplantation into the porcine genome. The piggyBac (PB) transposon system allows multiple genes to be stably integrated into target genomes through a single transfection event. However, to our knowledge, no attempt to introduce multiple genes into a porcine genome has been made using this system. In this study, we simultaneously introduced seven transposons into a single porcine embryonic fibroblast (PEF). PEFs were transfected with seven transposons containing genes for five drug resistance proteins and two (red and green) fluorescent proteins, together with a PB transposase expression vector, pTrans (experimental group). The above seven transposons (without pTrans) were transfected concomitantly (control group). Selection of these transfected cells in the presence of multiple selection drugs resulted in the survival of several clones derived from the experimental group, but not from the control. PCR analysis demonstrated that approximately 90% (12/13 tested) of the surviving clones possessed all of the introduced transposons. Splinkerette PCR demonstrated that the transposons were inserted through the TTAA target sites of PB. Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) using a PEF clone with multigene constructs demonstrated successful production of cloned blastocysts expressing both red and green fluorescence. These results indicate the feasibility of this PB-mediated method for simultaneous transfer of multigene constructs into the porcine cell genome, which is useful for production of cloned transgenic pigs expressing multiple transgenes.

Advances in plastid transformation for metabolic engineering in higher plants.

The plastid (chloroplast) genome of higher plants is an appealing target for metabolic engineering via genetic transformation. Although the bacterial-type plastid genome is small compared with the nuclear genome, it can accommodate large quantities of foreign genes that precisely integrate through homologous recombination. Engineering complex metabolic pathways in plants often requires simultaneous and concerted expression of multiple transgenes, the possibility of stacking several transgenes in synthetic operons makes the transplastomic approach amazing. The potential for extraordinarily high-level transgene expression, absence of epigenetic gene silencing and transgene containment due to the exclusion of plastids from pollen transmission in most angiosperm species further add to the attractiveness of plastid transformation technology. This minireview describes recent advances in expanding the toolboxes for plastid genome engineering, and highlights selected high-value metabolites produced using transplastomic plants, including artemisinin, astaxanthin and paclitaxel.

Lentiviral vector system for coordinated constitutive and drug controlled tetracycline-regulated gene co-expression.

Constitutive co-expression of cooperating transgenes using retroviral integrating vectors is frequently used for genetic modification of different cell types to establish therapeutic or cancer models. However, such approaches are unable to dissect the influence of dose, order and reversibility of transgene expression on the fate of newly developed therapeutic/malignant phenotypes. We present a modular lentiviral vector system, which provides expression of constitutive and inducible components. To demonstrate its functionality, we constitutively expressed the well-described transcription factor Meis1 followed by inducible co-expression of collaborating partner Hoxa9 under the control of tetracycline responsive promoters in murine fibroblasts and primary hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs). Fluorescent markers to track transgene co-expression revealed tightly controlled, efficiently inducible and reversible but cell type dependent gene transfer over time. We demonstrated dose-dependent blockade of myeloid differentiation when both Meis1/Hoxa9 were concomitantly overexpressed in primary HPCs in vitro, but the absence of the transformed phenotype in non-induced samples or when Hoxa9 expression was down-regulated. This system combines the advantages of lentiviral gene transfer and the opportunity for drug-controlled co-expression of multiple transgenes to dissect, among others, gene networks governing complex cell behavior, such as proto-oncogene dose-dependent leukemogenic pathways or collaborating mechanisms of genes enhancing competitive fitness of hematopoietic cells.