Avian retrotransposons enable targeted gene insertion in human cells
Researchers searched 1,139 avian genomes and identified 159 avian R2 retrotransposons, then characterized conserved and nonconserved sequence features in their proteins and untranslated region elements. Engineered variants achieved up to 60% site-specific gene integration across human primary cells, according to the paper in Nature Biotechnology. The approach uses all-RNA-mediated genome editing. Sequencing data were submitted to the Genome Sequence Archive for Human at the Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, under accession HRA013312.
The work expands the avian R2 resource and gives researchers additional RNA-mediated tools for targeted DNA integration in human cells.
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