Novel Approach for the Development of New Antibodies Directed Against Transposase-Derived Proteins Encoded by Human Neogenes

Molecular domestication of several DNA transposons has occurred during the evolution of the primate lineage, and has led to the emergence of at least 42 new genes known as neogenes. Because these genes are derived from transposons, they encode proteins that are related to certain recombinases, known as transposases. Consequently, they may make an important contribution to the genetic instability of some human cells. In order to investigate the role of these neogenes, we need to be able to study their expression as proteins, for example in tumours, which often provide good models of genetic instability. In order to perform such studies, polyclonal antibodies directed against the proteins expressed by neogenes are obtained using a recently developed new method of Nanospheres/DNA immunisation in laboratory mammals. In this chapter, we describe a fully integrated process of producing antibodies that consists of a series of steps starting with the preparation and synthetic formulation of plasmids encoding neogenes, and culminating in the final production and confirmation of the quality of these polyclonal antibodies.