Non-viral generation of transgenic non-human primates via the piggyBac transposon system

Masataka Nakaya, Chizuru Iwatani, Setsuko Tsukiyama-Fujii, Ai Mieda, Shoko Tarumoto, Taro Tsujimura, Takuya Yamamoto, Takafumi Ichikawa, Tomonori Nakamura, Ichiro Terakado, Ikuo Kawamoto, Takahiro Nakagawa, Iori Itagaki, Mitinori Saitou, Hideaki Tsuchiya and Tomoyuki Tsukiyama ()
Additional contact information
Masataka Nakaya: Shiga University of Medical Science
Chizuru Iwatani: Shiga University of Medical Science
Setsuko Tsukiyama-Fujii: Shiga University of Medical Science
Ai Mieda: Kyoto University
Shoko Tarumoto: Kyoto University
Taro Tsujimura: Kyoto University
Takuya Yamamoto: Kyoto University
Takafumi Ichikawa: Kyoto University
Tomonori Nakamura: Kyoto University
Ichiro Terakado: Shiga University of Medical Science
Ikuo Kawamoto: Shiga University of Medical Science
Takahiro Nakagawa: Shiga University of Medical Science
Iori Itagaki: Shiga University of Medical Science
Mitinori Saitou: Kyoto University
Hideaki Tsuchiya: Shiga University of Medical Science
Tomoyuki Tsukiyama: Shiga University of Medical Science

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: Abstract Non-human primates, such as cynomolgus monkeys, are invaluable experimental models for understanding human biology and disease. Their close genetic relationship to humans makes them essential for studying fundamental human developmental processes and disease progression. Although lentiviral methods for generating transgenic monkeys exist, several inherent technical difficulties limit their utility. To solve this problem, here we establish a non-viral method for generating transgenic cynomolgus monkeys using the piggyBac transposon system. After optimizing our protocol in mice, we show that the co-injection of piggyBac components with sperm into metaphase II-stage oocytes successfully generates transgenic monkeys expressing transgenes throughout their whole bodies. Transgene expression is observed in all examined tissue types, including germ cells, although the levels of expression vary. Insertion analysis further confirms the successful integration of the transgene. We propose that our method will be a practical non-viral protocol for generating transgenic non-human primates.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-57365-w Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-57365-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57365-w

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().