Engineered avian R2 retrotransposons insert DNA at set sites in human cells
Engineered avian R2 retrotransposons reached up to 60% site-specific gene integration across human primary cells, a paper in Nature Biotechnology reports. The team searched 1,139 avian genomes and found 159 R2 retrotransposons. They then characterized conserved and nonconserved features in the proteins and untranslated region elements. The engineered variants work through RNA alone. Sequencing data sit in the Genome Sequence Archive for Human under accession HRA013312, open to the public as of the paper's publication.
Genome-editing researchers may gain another tool for testing targeted DNA integration in human cells. The paper does not establish clinical use.
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