Optimized Sleeping Beauty transposons rapidly generate stable transgenic cell lines

E Kowarz, D Löscher, R Marschalek - Biotechnology journal, 2015 - Wiley Online Library
E Kowarz, D Löscher, R Marschalek
Biotechnology journal, 2015Wiley Online Library
Stable gene expression in mammalian cells is a prerequisite for many in vitro and in vivo
experiments. However, either the integration of plasmids into mammalian genomes or the
use of retro‐/lentiviral systems have intrinsic limitations. The use of transposable elements,
eg the Sleeping Beauty system (SB), circumvents most of these drawbacks (integration sites,
size limitations) and allows the quick generation of stable cell lines. The integration process
of SB is catalyzed by a transposase and the handling of this gene transfer system is easy …
Abstract
Stable gene expression in mammalian cells is a prerequisite for many in vitro and in vivo experiments. However, either the integration of plasmids into mammalian genomes or the use of retro‐/lentiviral systems have intrinsic limitations. The use of transposable elements, e.g. the Sleeping Beauty system (SB), circumvents most of these drawbacks (integration sites, size limitations) and allows the quick generation of stable cell lines. The integration process of SB is catalyzed by a transposase and the handling of this gene transfer system is easy, fast and safe. Here, we report our improvements made to the existing SB vector system and present two new vector types for robust constitutive or inducible expression of any gene of interest. Both types are available in 16 variants with different selection marker (puromycin, hygromycin, blasticidin, neomycin) and fluorescent protein expression (GFP, RFP, BFP) to fit most experimental requirements. With this system it is possible to generate cell lines from stable transfected cells quickly and reliably in a medium‐throughput setting (three to five days). Cell lines robustly express any gene‐of‐interest, either constitutively or tightly regulated by doxycycline. This allows many laboratory experiments to speed up generation of data in a rapid and robust manner.
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