Adenovirus FAQ

What is adenovirus? Adenoviruses were first isolated in human adenoids, from which the name is derived. Adenoviruses are medium-sized (90–100 nm), nonenveloped (naked) icosahedral viruses composed of a nucleocapsid and linear, non-segmented double stranded (ds) DNA genome which is about 36kb long. The genes of Adenovirus are divided into two phases, early and late phases. Genes of early phase are E1, E2, E3 and E4. Genes of late phases are L1, L2, L3, L4 and L5. The virion use its unique "spike" or fiber associated with each penton base of the capsid to attach the host cell via the coxsackie-adenovirus receptor on the surface of the host cell. There are more than 53 described serotypes in humans. Adenovirus can cause upper respiratory infections, conjunctivitis, gastroenteritis in human. Adenovirus type 5 is most extensive studied. Recombinant adenovirus vector usually delete E1 and E3 genes from genome of wild type adenovirus, making it replication deficiency so it can be safely used as transgene vector. E1 plus E3 are about 8.0 kb so the maximum insert size of your interesting gene is about 8.0kb, taking it into account that Promoter and Poly A occupy about 1 kb, so the maximum insert size is about 7 kb. Due to higher transduction efficiency (almost 100%), higher level expression of transgene and broad range of tropism, adenovirus vector has been widely used as gene therapy vector, vaccine production, gene knockdown, production of membrane and hard-to-expression protein and engineering antibody.