piggyBac Transposon

The piggyBac transposon was originally isolated from the cabbage looper moth, Trichoplusia ni, in the 1980s. Despite its early discovery and dissimilarity to the other DNA transposon families, the piggyBac transposon was not recognized as a member of a large transposon superfamily for a long time. Initially, the piggyBac transposon was thought to be a rare transposon. This view, however, has now been completely revised as a number of fully sequenced genomes have revealed the presence of piggyBac-like repetitive elements. The isolation of active copies of the piggyBac-like elements from several distinct species further supported this revision. This includes the first isolation of an active mammalian DNA transposon identified in the bat genome. To date, the piggyBac transposon has been deeply characterized and it represents a number of unique characteristics. In general, all members of the piggyBac superfamily use TTAA as their integration target sites. In addition, the piggyBac transposon shows precise excision, i. e., restoring the sequence to its preintegration state, and can transpose in a variety of organisms such as yeasts, malaria parasites, insects, mammals, and even in plants. Biochemical analysis of the chemical steps of transposition revealed that piggyBac does not require DNA synthesis during the actual transposition event. The broad host range has attracted researchers from many different fields, and the piggyBac transposon is currently the most widely used transposon system for genetic manipulations.