Maize Transposable Elements / as Insertion Mutagenesis Tools in .

In nonmodel systems, genetic research is often limited by the lack of techniques for the generation and identification of gene mutations. One approach to overcome this bottleneck is the application of transposons for gene tagging. We have established a two-element transposon tagging system, based on the transposable elements ()/ () from maize, for insertion mutagenesis in the fungal human pathogen A nonautonomous transposon carrying a selectable marker was constructed into the promoter on chromosome 3 and a codon usage-adapted transposase gene was inserted into the neutral locus on chromosome 5. In cells expressing the transposase, the element efficiently excised and reintegrated elsewhere in the genome, which makes the / transposons promising tools for saturating insertion mutagenesis in clinical strains of .