Enhancer trap

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In essence, enhancer traps are transgenic constructions by the fusing of two proteins that are inserted into the genome for the identification of enhancers. Its structure contains a mobile element (necessary for random insertion in the genome) usually some sort of P element (a promoter that must be sensitive to the enhancer) and a reporter gene. The reporter gene is necessary for identification of the spatial regulation by enhancers. The most common and basic enhancer traps are: P[ lacZ ] from bacterium E.coli and P[GAL4] from yeast.

The enhancer trap also uses some sort of visible marker that allows the new insertions to be recognized such as the white eye color gene in Drosophila or ampicillin resistance for E. coli.

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