{"id":8033,"date":"2019-05-22T16:03:18","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/gene_traps\/"},"modified":"2019-05-22T16:03:18","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:03:18","slug":"gene_traps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/gene_traps\/","title":{"rendered":"Gene traps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A strategy using a genetic construct that is a kind of mutagen that acts as a cellular marker. &nbsp;If the construct integrates into a gene that is transcribed in a specific cell type at a specific time, the marker will be expressed in those cells at that time. &nbsp;In essence, it disrupts genes throughout the genome by inserting a DNA element that typically contains a &#8216;reporter&#8217;. &nbsp;This insertion usually mutates the gene. &nbsp;This technique evolved to overcome one of the shortcomings of classical genetics: it relies on the disruption of a gene leading to a recognizable or overt phenotype (and thus the function of the corresponding gene), but not all genes can be identified by mutagenesis. &nbsp;There are two reasons for this. &nbsp;First, many genes are functionally redundant (referred to as junk&#8217;), and share many other genes that may not be related at the sequence level (e.g., the use of genetic knockouts have revealed that a marked percentage of genes in yeast have no overt phenotype when disrupted). &nbsp;Second, many genes function at different stages of development, and so if they become mutated then it can have a lethal outcome or they can be highly pleiotropic thus masking the role of particular gene in a specific pathway. Gene traps then are designed to overcome this drawback and so reliably to identify genes underlying the development of phenotypes. &nbsp;It should be pointed out that there are a number of different &#8216;trapping&#8217; systems, the main difference being the reporter gene construct used. &nbsp;The generic term &#8216;gene trap&#8217; is therefore used to refer to them collectively. &nbsp;More information on gene traps and their use can be found in the website of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.genetrap.org\/\" target=\"_self\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/www.genetrap.org\/&amp;target=_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">International Gene Trap Consortium<\/a> (IGTC). &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>See <a href=\"conditional_knockouts\">Conditional knockouts<\/a>, <a href=\"dna_-deoxyribonucleic_acid-\">DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)<\/a>, <a href=\"forward_genetics\">Forward genetics<\/a>, <a href=\"genotype_and_phenotype\">Genotype and phenotype<\/a>, <a href=\"mutagens\">Mutagens<\/a>, <a href=\"reverse_genetics\">Reverse genetics<\/a>, Transgene <\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A strategy using a genetic construct that is a kind of mutagen that acts as a cellular marker. &nbsp;If the construct integrates into a gene that is transcribed in a specific cell type at a specific time, the marker will be expressed in those cells at that time. &nbsp;In essence, it disrupts genes throughout the &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/gene_traps\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Gene traps&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-8033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-glossary","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}