Transposition of the Drosophila hydei Minos transposon in the mouse germ line.

We tested the suitability of the fly transposon Minos, a member of the Tc1/mariner superfamily, for insertional mutagenesis in the mouse germ line. We generated a transgenic mouse line expressing Minos transposase in growing oocytes and another carrying a tandem array of nonautonomous transposons. The frequency of transposition in the progeny derived from oocytes carrying both transgenes is 8.2%. Analysis of the new integration sites shows a high frequency of transpositions to a different chromosome. Thus Minos transposition could be an effective system for insertional mutagenesis and functional genomic analysis in the mouse.