CHROMOSOMAL TRANSPOSITION OF A TC1 MARINER-LIKE ELEMENT IN MOUSE EMBRYONIC STEM-CELLS/

Mouse has become an increasingly important organism for modeling human diseases and for determining gene function in a mammalian context. Un fortunately, transposon-tagged mutagenesis, one of the most valuable t ools for functional genomics, still is not available in this organism. On the other hand, it has long been speculated that members of the Tc 1/mariner-like elements may be less dependent on host factors and, hen ce, can be introduced into heterologous organisms. However, this predi ction has not been realized in mice. We report here the chromosomal tr ansposition of the Sleeping Beauty (SB) element in mouse embryonic ste m cells, providing evidence that it can be used as an in vivo mutagen in mice.