Transposons

A female researcher by the name of Barbara McClintock discovered jumping genes in corn. She called these transposons and described them as genes which were able to move from place to place on the chromosome. Finally it was found that such genes were responsible for the different colors in corn. She got the Nobel Prize for this research in 1983 and since then her research has been expanded in remarkable ways. Now, for example, scientists have taken a gene from coral and inserted it into mice and made them glow red, or other colors. A scientist by the name of Tian Xu has recently taken this "trick" which has been done by numerous laboratories, and shown how such transposons, his is called PiggyBac and came from the cabbage looper moth, can be used in genetic modifications at cost of a mere $500. Heretofore, the cost has been $100,000 to create a modified mouse. Now drug companies, for example, can use genes which have been modified to jump will-nilly around cells as they watch to see which genes or combination of genes permit cancer to develop. Another benefit one can predict is gene therapy. Such things as muscular dystrophy, hemophilia, and cystic fibrosis are good candidates for targeting the gene defects which cause them. Until now, however, there has been no cost effective way to address the theoretical approach. A researcher by the name of Largaespada at the University of Minnesota has created a transposon called Sleeping Beauty. Like PiggyBac, his transposon which came from fish, and also works well in mammals. This is all pretty exciting to someone who once studied all of this as a possibility at some time in the distant future.