Genome wide analysis of retroviral DNA integration

Retroviral vectors are often used to introduce therapeutic sequences into patients' cells. In recent years, gene therapy with retroviral vectors has had impressive therapeutic successes, but has also resulted in three cases of leukaemia caused by insertional mutagenesis, which has focused attention on the molecular determinants of retroviral-integration target-site selection. Here, we review retroviral DNA integration, with emphasis on recent genome-wide studies of targeting and on the status of efforts to modulate target-site selection.