We determined the in vitro and in vivo translational efficiency mediated by the internal ribosomal entry site (IRES) from eight BVDV2 field isolates varying in virulence using a bicistronic reporter vector in rabbit reticulocyte lysates (RRL), and in primate and bovine cell lines. Using a T7-promoter system, the high virulence isolates had greater translational efficiencies in bovine lymphocyte...

A bicistronic baculovirus expression vector and fluorescent protein-based assays were used to identify the sequences that possess internal translation activity in baculovirus-infected insect cells. We demonstrated that the 5' untranslated region (5'UTR; 473 nucleotides) of Perina nuda virus (PnV) and the 5'UTR (579 nucleotides) of Rhopalosiphum padi virus (RhPV), but not the IRES sequence of Cr...

Purpose:The antitumor activity of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)–redirectedCTLs shouldbe enhanced if it were possible to increase their proliferation and function after adoptive transfer without concomitantly increasing the proliferation and function of regulatory T cells (Treg). Here, we explored whether the lack of IL-7Ra in Treg can be exploited by the targeted manipulation of the interleuk...

Tandem paired genes encoding putative short-chain monodomain protein members of the chromate ion transporter (CHR) superfamily (ywrB and ywrA) were cloned from genomic DNA of Bacillus subtilis strain 168. The transcription of the paired genes, renamed chr3N and chr3C, respectively, was shown to occur via a bicistronic mRNA generated from a promoter upstream of the chr3N gene. The chr3N and chr3...

Retroviruses cause immunodeficiency and cancer but also are used as vectors for the expression of heterologous genes. Nevertheless, optimal translation of introduced genes often is not achieved. Here we show that transfection into mammalian cells of lentiviral or gammaretroviral vectors, including those with specific shRNAs, increased expression of a cotransfected gene relative to standard plas...

Human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are generated from somatic cells by ectopic expression of the 4 reprogramming factors (RFs) Oct-4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc. To better define the stoichiometric requirements and dynamic expression patterns required for successful hiPSC induction, we generated 4 bicistronic lentiviral vectors encoding the 4 RFs co-expressed with discernable fluorescent ...

Protein kinases are a large family of cell signaling mediators undergoing intensive research to identify inhibitors or modulators useful for medicine. As one strategy, small-molecule compounds that bind the active site with high affinity can be used to inhibit the enzyme activity. X-ray crystallography is a powerful method to reveal the structures of the kinase active sites, and thus aid in the...

Myelosuppression is one of the major side-effects of most anticancer drugs. To achieve myeloprotection, one bicistronic vector encoding anti-apoptotic protein human WEE1 (WEE1Hu) and proliferation-stimulating stem cell factor (SCF) was generated. In this study, we selected human umbilical cord blood CD34+ cells as the in vitro model in an attempt to investigate whether WEE1Hu, rather than conve...

The 5' untranslated region (5'UTR) of the recently described non-primate hepacivirus (NPHV) contains a region with sequence homology to the internal ribosomal entry site (IRES) of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and GB virus B (GBV-B). Here, we demonstrated internal translation initiation by the NPHV 5'UTR in a bicistronic vector. An RNA stem-loop upstream of the NPHV IRES was structurally distinct fro...

We report the successful expression and purification of functional human muscle glycogen synthase (GYS1) in complex with human glycogenin-1 (GN1). Stoichiometric GYS1:GN1 complex was produced by co-expression of GYS1 and GN1 using a bicistronic pFastBac™-Dual expression vector, followed by affinity purification and subsequent size-exclusion chromatography. Mass spectrometry analysis identified ...