Ga. Ward et al., STRINGENT CHEMICAL AND THERMAL REGULATION OF RECOMBINANT GENE-EXPRESSION BY VACCINIA VIRUS VECTORS IN MAMMALIAN-CELLS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United Statesof America, 92(15), 1995, pp. 6773-6777
We developed a stringently regulated expression system for mammalian c
ells that uses (i) the RNA polymerase, phi 10 promoter, and T phi tran
scriptional terminator of bacteriophage T7; (ii) the lac repressor, la
c operator, rho-independent transcriptional terminators and the gpt ge
ne of Escherichia coil; (iii) the RNA translational enhancer of enceph
alomyocarditis virus; and (iv) the genetic background of vaccinia viru
s. In cells infected with the recombinant vaccinia virus, reporter bet
a-galactosidase synthesis was not detected in the absence of inducer,
An induction of at least 10,000- to 20,000-fold occurred upon addition
of isopropyl beta-D-thiogalactopyranoside or by temperature elevation
from 30 to 37 degrees C using a temperature-sensitive lac repressor,
Regulated synthesis of the secreted and highly glycosylated human immu
nodeficiency virus 1 envelope protein gp120 was also demonstrated. Yie
lds of both proteins were approximate to 2 mg per 108 cells in 24 hr.
Plasmid transfer vectors for cloning and expression of complete or inc
omplete open reading frames in recombinant vaccinia viruses are descri
bed.