Discovery and engineering of avian R2 retrotransposons for all-RNA-mediated targeted DNA integration in human cells.

Engineered avian R2 retrotransposons achieve up to 60% site-specific gene integration in human primary cells.

• Why it matters: Understanding and harnessing retrotransposons for genome editing can improve targeted DNA integration methods, addressing limitations in current technologies.
• What they did: Researchers analyzed 1,139 avian genomes, identified 159 R2 retrotransposons, and developed engineered variants to enhance site-specific gene integration.
• The result: This work broadens the avian R2 retrotransposon resource and offers new tools for all-RNA-mediated genome editing in human cells.