Construction of piggyBac-based vectors using visible and drug-resistance marker for introducing foreign genes into silkworm cultured cells

Transgenic organisms have been indispensable for modern genetic analysis, such as over expression or knocked-down of the genes of interest. Transposon is one of the most efficient tools for introducing foreign DNA sequences into host genome. DNA transposon, such as piggyBac, Hermes, Minos, hobo, and mariner, have been identified in insects and have been used successfully as vectors for germline tarsnformation in various insect species. piggyBac-based transformation vectors have been broadly used in generating transgenic silkworm. However, there are few studies reporting vectors for transformation of cultured B. mori cells. In this study, we constructed new piggyBac-based vectors pPigGate, which have visible and drug selectable marker, PuroDsRed or GFPZeo in cultured cells. In order to access the utility of these vectors, we introduced BmHop2 and BmMnd1, which are meiosis specific recombination proteins, into cultured B. mori cells using the pPigGate.