Biology Reference
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repeats and were accompanied by small deletions in the plasmids. These abnor-
mal integrations also did not produce the typical 8-bp duplications at the inser-
tion sites, suggesting that the vector could have integrated into the genome
by general recombination or through a partial replicative transposition. As a
result,
Jasinskiene et al. (2000)
concluded this insertion mechanism “precludes its
immediate use in experiments that involve field release of transformed animals
into the field” although
Hermes
remains useful for laboratory experiments.
Herves
was found in a population of
Anopheles gambiae
and appears to be
an ancient TE that inserted into mosquitoes before the divergence of
Anopheles
species (
O'Brochta et al. 2006
).
9.15.3 Minos
Minos
is related to
mariner
elements and was first found in
D. hydei
. It can trans-
pose in
Drosophila
,
Bombyx mori
,
Tribolium castaneum
, and
Anopheles stephensi
cells and embryos (
Catteruccia et al. 2000a, Klinakis et al. 2000a, Shimizu et al.
2000, Pavlopoulos et al. 2004
) and also produce stable germ-line transformation
(
Catteruccia et al. 2000b
). Surprisingly,
Minos
can transform human cell lines,
making it a useful tool for mutagenesis and functional analysis (
Klinakis et al.
2000b
). The ability of
Minos
to transform human cells suggests that it potentially
has a very wide host range, which could elicit concerns about risks if
Minos
is
used to transform insects destined for release into the field in pest-management
programs. To reduce potential risk with insects destined for field release, it would
be necessary to eliminate the
Minos
element after transformation of the insect.
9.15.4 mariner
This TE (called
Mos1
) initially was isolated from
Drosophila mauritiana
, but it is
extremely widespread among arthropods (
Robertson 1995
). The phylogeny
of
mariner
elements from diverse organisms is not congruent with their host,
indicating that
mariner
has moved horizontally across phyla (
Robertson 1995,
Robertson and Lampe 1995
). For example,
mariner
has been found in the insect-
parasitic nematode
Heterorhabditis bacteriophora
(
Grenier et al. 1999
), a root-
knot soil nematode (
Leroy et al. 2000
), three flatworms (
Dugesia tigrina
,
Stylochus
zebra
, and
Bdelloura candida
) (
Garcia-Fernandez et al. 1995
), and two hydras
(
Hydra littoralis
and
H. vulgaris
) (
Robertson 1997
). The host range of
mariner
extends to mammals, including human, mouse, rat, Chinese hamster, sheep, and
cow (
Auge-Gouillou et al. 1995, Oosumi et al. 1995, Robertson and Martos 1997
).
A
mariner
element can transform vertebrate cells, but the transposition
rate can be low and variable (
Delauriere et al. (2009)
. Vertebrates transformed
