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This article is part of the supplement: Transposons in vertebrate functional genomics

Review

Mutagenesis in rodents using the L1 retrotransposon

Eric M Ostertag1,2 email, Blair B Madison1 and Hiroki Kano1

1University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Department of Genetics, Curie Blvd, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA

2University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Curie Blvd, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA

author email corresponding author email

Genome Biology 2007, 8(Suppl 1):S16doi:10.1186/gb-2007-8-s1-s16

Published: 31 October 2007

Abstract

LINE1 (L1) retrotransposons are genetic elements that are present in all mammalian genomes. L1s are active in both humans and mice, and are capable of copying themselves and inserting the copy into a new genomic location. These de novo insertions occasionally result in disease. Endogenous L1 retrotransposons can be modified to increase their activity and mutagenic power in a variety of ways. Here we outline the advantages of using modified L1 retrotransposons for performing random mutagenesis in rodents and discuss several potential applications.


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