Site-specific recombinases as tools for heterologous gene integration

Site-specific recombinases are the enzymes that catalyze site-specific recombination between two specific DNA sequences to mediate DNA integration, excision, resolution, or inversion and that play a pivotal role in the life cycles of many microorganisms including bacteria and bacteriophages. These enzymes are classified as tyrosine-type or serine-type recombinases based on whether a tyrosine or serine residue mediates catalysis. All known tyrosine-type recombinases catalyze the formation of a Holliday junction intermediate, whereas the catalytic mechanism of all known serine-type recombinases includes the 180° rotation and rejoining of cleaved substrate DNAs. Both recombinase families are further subdivided into two families; the tyrosine-type recombinases are subdivided by the recombination directionality, and the serine-type recombinases are subdivided by the protein size. Over more than two decades, many different site-specific recombinases have been applied to in vivo genome engineering, and some of them have been used successfully to mediate integration, deletion, or inversion in a wide variety of heterologous genomes, including those from bacteria to higher eukaryotes. Here, we review the recombination mechanisms of the best characterized recombinases in each site-specific recombinase family and recent advances in the application of these recombinases to genomic manipulation, especially manipulations involving site-specific gene integration into heterologous genomes.