随着高通量测序技术的迅猛发展,越来越多的生物基因组注释结果表明：转座子几乎存在于所有生物的基因组中,是大多数生物基因组的重要组分。其中,Tc1/Mariner转座子是自然界中分布最广泛的一类DNA转座子超家族,在自然界已经发现14个有活性的Tc1/Mariner转座子(如Minos,Mos1等),另外通过分子重构也获得高活性的人工转座子,如睡美人转座子(Sleeping Beauty, SB)。SB和Mos1等转座子作为基因转移载体已被广泛应用于转基因、基因捕获和基因治疗等领域的研究中,并取得了很好的应用效果。本文将重点综述Tc1/Mariner转座子的结构、分类、分布、转座机制、活性转座子的挖掘,及其在转基因、基因捕获和基因治疗等研究领域的应用。

With the rapid improvement of sequencing techniques, more and more genome annotations reveal the transposons are the important components of most genomes and present on almost all organisms. Among them, the Tc1/Mariner superfamily represents the most widespread DNA transposons. Until now, fourteen active Tc1/Mariner transposons (Minos, Mos1, etc.) have been identified and some highly active artificial transposons have been created through molecular reconstruction, such as Sleeping Beauty (SB). The transposons such as SB and Mos1 have been widely used as gene transfer vectors in the fields of transgenosis, gene trapping and gene therapy. In this review, we summarize the structure, classification, distributions, transposition mechanism and excavations of active members of Tc1/Mariner as well as its application in the fields of transgenesis, gene trapping and gene therapy.