中国农业科学 ›› 2026, Vol. 59 ›› Issue (6): 1141-1156.doi: 10.3864/j.issn.0578-1752.2026.06.001

• 作物遗传育种·种质资源·分子遗传学 • 上一篇    下一篇

转座元件系统介导的大片段DNA定向插入技术研究进展

赵子杰1(), 宋豪1, 董小鸥1,2(), 万建民2,3()   

  1. 1 南京农业大学作物遗传与种质创新利用全国重点实验室,南京 211800
    2 生物育种钟山实验室,南京 211800
    3 中国农业科学院作物科学研究所/作物基因资源与育种全国重点实验室,北京 100081
  • 收稿日期:2025-08-21 接受日期:2025-12-01 出版日期:2026-03-16 发布日期:2026-03-24
  • 通信作者:
    董小鸥,E-mail:
    万建民,E-mail:
  • 联系方式: 赵子杰,E-mail:zhaozijie@stu.njau.edu.cn。
  • 基金资助:
    农业生物育种国家科技重大项目(2023ZD04074); 生物育种钟山实验室项目(ZSBBL-KY2023-04)

Progress in Transposable Element-Assisted Targeted Insertion of Large DNA Fragments

ZHAO ZiJie1(), SONG Hao1, DONG XiaoOu1,2(), WAN JianMin2,3()   

  1. 1 State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement & Utilization, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 211800
    2 Zhongshan Biological Breeding Laboratory, Nanjing 211800
    3 Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/State Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Resources and Breeding, Beijing 100081
  • Received:2025-08-21 Accepted:2025-12-01 Published:2026-03-16 Online:2026-03-24

摘要:

随着CRISPR/Cas等基因编辑技术的快速发展,其在动植物育种、微生物改造及基础科学研究中已展现出强大的应用潜力。当前的基因编辑技术可在广泛物种中对指定基因组靶点进行单个或多个核苷酸的插入、删除、替换等操作,而对于DNA大片段的定向插入或替换等编辑类型,仍面临效率及保真性低、供体递送困难等技术瓶颈。这些瓶颈制约了基因编辑技术在包括具有遗传连锁的多基因聚合、优良等位基因精准替换、基因组安全港片段定向导入等重要场景下的应用。转座元件作为广泛存在于生物基因组中的可移动遗传元件,凭借其天然的移动能力与大容量DNA装载特性,为突破上述瓶颈提供了全新路径,有望被工程化改造成为DNA大片段精准编辑的关键分子工具,解决上述难题。本文综述了基于转座元件的大片段DNA定向插入技术的最新研究进展,重点探讨了原核生物来源的CRISPR相关转座子(CAST)和真核生物中的部分DNA转座子及逆转座子的应用现状与前景。原核生物来源的CAST系统表现突出,在原核生物中可介导高效的大片段整合,经优化后也能在真核细胞中实现大片段插入。在真核生物中,DNA转座子mPing/Pong和逆转座子R2与L1相关工具经工程化改造,也被用于动植物中的大片段DNA插入。与此同时,基于转座子的大片段DNA定向插入技术领域面临着挑战。一方面,转座元件的跨物种适配性不足,导致部分转座元件难以被移植到其他物种中发挥功能。另一方面,相关蛋白元件尺寸较大或数量繁多,导致在特定类型的真核细胞中递送效率低。此外,部分系统存在刺激哺乳动物免疫系统并导致炎症反应的安全风险。在未来的研究中,通过新型转座元件挖掘、工程化改造转座酶、开发新型递送载体、深度解析转座机制等,可为建立高效、安全的大片段编辑技术提供关键技术支撑,为作物遗传改良、基因治疗及微生物基因组编辑提供源头技术创新。

关键词: 基因编辑, DNA转座子, R2逆转座子, CRISPR相关转座子, DNA定向插入, 作物遗传改良

Abstract:

The rapidly evolving genome editing technologies have demonstrated strong application potential in animal and plant breeding, microbial engineering, and basic scientific research. Current genome editing techniques allow for the insertion, deletion, and substitution of single or multiple nucleotides at specific genomic targets across a wide range of species. However, editing types involving large DNA fragment insertion or replacement still face technical bottlenecks, such as low efficiency and fidelity, as well as difficulties in donor delivery. These limitations restrict the application of gene editing in important scenarios, including multigene stacking with genetic linkage, precise replacement of favorable alleles, and targeted integration of DNA fragments at genomic safe harbors. Transposable elements, as mobile genetic elements widely present in biological genomes, offer a novel approach to overcoming these challenges due to their inherent mobility and large DNA cargo capacity. They hold promise for being engineered into key molecular tools for precise large DNA fragment editing. This review summarizes recent advances in targeted large DNA fragment insertion technologies based on transposable elements, focusing on the application status and prospects of prokaryotic-derived CRISPR-associated transposons (CAST) and certain DNA transposons and retrotransposons in eukaryotes. Prokaryotic-derived CAST systems have shown outstanding performance, enabling efficient large fragment integration in prokaryotes and, after optimization, also achieving large fragment insertion in eukaryotic cells. In eukaryotes, engineered DNA transposons such as mPing/Pong and retrotransposon-related tools like R2 and L1 have been utilized for large DNA fragment insertion in animals and plants. At the same time, the field of transposon-based large DNA fragment insertion faces challenges. On the one hand, the cross-species adaptability of transposable elements is limited, making it difficult for some elements to function when transferred to other species. On the other hand, the large size or multiplicity of protein components involved leads to low delivery efficiency in certain types of eukaryotic cells. Additionally, some systems carry safety risks, such as stimulating the mammalian immune system and triggering inflammatory responses. Future research may focus on the discovery of novel transposable elements, engineering of transposases, development of new delivery vectors, and in-depth elucidation of transposition mechanisms, in order to provide key technical support for establishing efficient and safe large fragment editing technologies. This will contribute to foundational innovations in crop genetic improvement, gene therapy, and microbial genome editing.

Key words: genome editing, DNA transposon, R2 retrotransposon, CRISPR-associated transposon, targeted DNA insertion, crop genetic improvement