Table 1

The most frequently used transposable element systems in metazoan models and some of their main characteristics

Transposon name
Transposon family
Tolerated cargo size
Target site sequence
Chromatic integration pattern

Minos (Drosophila hydei) [112]
Tc1
Possibly similar to other Tc1/mariner transposons
TA [113]
No preference for genes. Gene hits dominantly target introns [114]
Mos1 (Drosophila mauritiana) [115]
Mariner
Sensitive to increased cargo size [116]
TA [115]
Possibly similar to other Tc1/mariner transposons
P element (Drosophila melanogaster) [44,45]
P
Usually the cargo size is not limiting utility (10 to 20 kb routinely handled)
Heterogenic [117]
Bias for 5' regulatory sequences [61,62]
piggyBac (Trichoplusia ni cell line TN-368) [118]
piggyBac
Efficiency drops above 9.1 kb in pronucleus injected mice [68]
TTAA [119]
High preference for transcription units, (but the pattern is distinct from the P element pattern) [11,62,68]
Sleeping Beauty (salmonid fish) [67]
Tc1
Increased cargo size exponentially decreasing the efficiency in cultured cells [120]
TA [67]
Slight preference for genes. Gene hits dominantly target introns [12,121]
Tc1 (Caenorhabditis elegans) [29]
Tc1
Increased cargo size exponentially decreasing the efficiency in cultured cells [122]
TA [123]
Mild preference for introns in C. elegans [124]
Tc3 (C. elegans) [125]
Tc1
Possibly similar to Tc1
TA [123]
Mild preference for introns in C. elegans [124]
Tol2 (Oryzias latipes [medaka fish]) [126]
hAT
11.7 kb did not reduce transgenesis rates in zebrafish [127]; >10 kb transposons jump efficiently in human cells [98]
Heterogenic [72]
May prefer the 5' regions of genes [128]

kb, kilobases.

Mátés et al. Genome Biology 2007 8(Suppl 1):S1   doi:10.1186/gb-2007-8-s1-s1