Genetic dissection of a blood pressure quantitative trait locus on rat chromosome 1 and gene expression analysis identifies SPON1 as a novel candidate hypertension gene.

A region with a major effect on blood pressure (BP) is located on rat chromosome 1. We have previously isolated this region in reciprocal congenic strains (WKY.SHR-Sa and SHR.

Iterative in vivo assembly of large and complex transgenes by combining the activities of phiC31 integrase and Cre recombinase.

We have used the phiC31 integrase to introduce large DNA sequences into a vertebrate genome and measure the efficiency of integration of intact DNA as a function of insert size. Inserts of 110 kb and 140 kb in length may be integrated with about 25% and 10% efficiency respectively. In order to overcome the problems of constructing transgenes longer than approximately 150 kb we have established a method that we call; 'Iterative Site Specific Integration' (ISSI).