Targeted transposition with Tn7 elements: safe sites, mobile plasmids, CRISPR/Cas and beyond.

ABSTRACT: Transposon Tn7 is notable for the control it exercises over where transposition events are directed. One Tn7 integration pathways recognizes a highly conserved attachment (att) site in the chromosome, while a second pathway specifically recognizes mobile plasmids that facilitate transfer of the element to new hosts. In this review, I discuss newly discovered families of Tn7-like elements with different targeting pathways. Perhaps the most exciting examples are multiple instances where Tn7-like elements have repurposed CRISPR/Cas systems. In these cases, the CRISPR/Cas systems have lost their canonical defensive function to destroy incoming mobile elements; instead, the systems have been naturally adapted to use guide RNAs to specifically direct transposition into these mobile elements. The

SUBMITTER: Peters JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6904524 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature