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Naturally Occurring Minichromosome Platforms in Chromosome Engineering: An Overview

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Mammalian Chromosome Engineering

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 738))

Abstract

Artificially modified chromosome vectors are non-integrating gene delivery platforms that can shuttle very large DNA fragments in various recipient cells: theoretically, no size limit exists for the chromosome segments that an engineered minichromosome can accommodate. Therefore, genetically manipulated chromosomes might be potentially ideal vector systems, especially when the complexity of higher eukaryotic genes is concerned. This review focuses on those chromosome vectors generated using spontaneously occurring small markers as starting material. The definition and manipulation of the centromere domain is one of the main obstacles in chromosome engineering: naturally occurring minichromosomes, due to their inherent small size, were helpful in defining some aspects of centromere function. In addition, several distinctive features of small marker chromosomes, like their appearance as supernumerary elements in otherwise normal karyotypes, have been successfully exploited to use them as gene delivery vectors. The key technologies employed for minichromosome engineering are: size reduction, gene targeting, and vector delivery in various recipient cells. In spite of the significant advances that have been recently achieved in all these fields, several unsolved problems limit the potential of artificially modified chromosomes. Still, these vector systems have been exploited in a number of applications where the investigation of the controlled expression of large DNA segments is needed. A typical example is the analysis of genes whose expression strictly depends on the chromosomal environment in which they are positioned, where engineered chromosomes can be envisaged as epigenetically regulated expression systems. A novel and exciting advance concerns the use of engineered minichromosomes to study the organization and dynamics of local chromatin structures.

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Acknowledgements

I wish to acknowledge Luca Ferretti (Dept. of Genet. and Microbiol., University of Pavia), Chiara Mondello (IGM, CNR Pavia) and Marianna Paulis (ITB, CNR Milano) for critical ­reading of the manuscript. Research in my lab is funded by Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (PRIN 2006).

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  1. Department of Genetics and Microbiology “A. Buzzati Traverso”, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

    Elena Raimondi

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  1. Elena Raimondi
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Correspondence to Elena Raimondi .

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  1. Biological Research Center, Institute of Genetics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Temesvári körút 62, Szeged, 6723, Hungary

    Gyula Hadlaczky

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Raimondi, E. (2011). Naturally Occurring Minichromosome Platforms in Chromosome Engineering: An Overview. In: Hadlaczky, G. (eds) Mammalian Chromosome Engineering. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 738. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-099-7_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-099-7_3

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