Patent ID: 8399257

Claim:
A method for producing a transgenic non-human vertebrate comprising the steps of: introducing into a non-human vertebrate cell a modified Ac transposase or a nucleic acid encoding the modified Ac transposase, wherein the modified Ac transposase comprises (i) a synthetic nuclear localization signal (NLS) and (ii) a truncated Ac transposase, wherein the synthetic NLS is fused to the N-terminus of the truncated Ac transposase, wherein the synthetic NLS localizes a transposition reaction to the nucleus of the vertebrate cell and wherein the truncated Ac transposase comprises an amino acid sequence having at least 80% identity to SEQ ID NO:8 and catalyzes the integration of the polynucleotide into the genome of the vertebrate cell, wherein the NLS comprises the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:2 or the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:9; introducing into the non-human vertebrate cell a nucleic acid fragment comprising a polynucleotide positioned between 5′ end and 3′ end cis-required sequences of a Ds element that bind to the modified Ac transposase; integrating the polynucleotide into the genome of the non-human vertebrate cell to produce a transgenic non-human vertebrate cell; and growing the transgenic non-human vertebrate cell into a transgenic non-human vertebrate.