Previous Articles     Next Articles

YUAN Yu-guo1，2，PENG Qiu-ling3   

  1. 1.Jiangsu Co-innovation Center for Prevention and Control of Important Animal Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses,College of Veterinary Medicine, Yangzhou University，Yangzhou 225009, China；2.College of Animal Science and Technology,Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009,China；3.Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Yichun University，Yichun 336000, China
  • Received:2014-01-17 Online:2014-08-20 Published:2014-08-22

Abstract: Zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) are engineered site-specific DNA cleavage enzymes that may be designed to recognize long target sites and thus cut DNA with high specificity. ZFNs mediate permanent and targeted genetic alteration via induction of a double-strand break at a specific genomic site. Compared to conventional homology-based gene targeting, ZFNs can increase the targeting rate by up to 100000-fold; gene disruption via mutagenic DNA repair is similarly efficient. The utility of ZFNs has been shown in many organisms, including insects, amphibians, plants, nematodes, and several mammals, including humans. This broad range of tractable species renders ZFNs a useful tool for improving the understanding of complex physiological systems, to produce transgenic animals, cell lines, and plants, and to treat human disease. This review summarized recent advances in the understanding of role and function of ZFNs and described the utility of ZFNs for mammalian transgenesis.

Key words: zinc-finger nucleases; mammalian transgenesis; gene targeted