Disclosed are isolated transposable elements, or isolated DNA sequences which encode a transposase protein (or a portion of a transposase protein), The isolated transposable elements or the isolated DNA sequences being characterized by the ability to hybridize to the DNA sequence of Minos 1 under stringent hybridization conditions. The invention also relates to a purified transposase protein, or peptide fragments thereof, encoded by such DNA sequences. Such transposable are useful in methods for the stable introduction of a DNA sequence of interest into a eukaryotic cell. The sequence information disclosed herein is useful in the design of oligonucleotide primers which are useful for the isolation of related members of the Tc-1 family of transposable elements.
展开▼