Construction of a retrotransposition indicator sequence using a neomycin resistance-encoding gene containing a functional intron

Abstract

An intron from a Syrian hamster gene was inserted into a neo gene such that splicing of the neo gene mRNA results in the synthesis of active aminoglycoside phosphotransferase. The unspliced construct is inactive in Escherichia coli, but confers resistance to G418 when transfected into mouse and hamster cells. This selectable marker is designed to aid in the cloning and identification of genomic integration sites following retrotransposition.