Patent attributes
The present invention is directed generally to activating gene expression or causing over-expression of a gene by recombination methods in situ. The invention also is directed generally to methods for expressing an endogenous gene in a cell at levels higher than those normally found in the cell. In one embodiment of the invention, expression of an endogenous gene is activated or increased following integration into the cell, by non-homologous or illegitimate recombination, of a regulatory sequence that activates expression of the gene. In another embodiment, the expression of the endogenous gene may be further increased by co-integration of one or more amplifiable markers, and selecting for increased copies of the one or more amplifiable markers located on the integrated vector. The invention also provides methods for the identification, activation, isolation, and/or expression of genes undiscoverable by current methods since no target sequence is necessary for integration.
