Synthetic CpG-free Genes
Bacterial DNA is rich in unmethylated cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) sites, unlike mammalian DNA, in which most CpG sites are methylated (specifically, at the 5’-position of the cytosine). Unmethylated CpGs, in specific sequence contexts, activates the vertebrate immune system. Genes with these sequences are recognized as foreign DNA by the vertebrate host, leading to a progressive decline in their expression.
Many non-mammalian (i.e. bacterial) genes are widely used as reporter or suicide genes in molecular and cellular studies. To circumvent this limitation, InvivoGen has synthesized new alleles of these genes completely devoid of CpG dinucleotides. These synthetic CpG-free genes display higher activity and lower immunogenicity than their wild-type counterparts.
InvivoGen is an expert in developing CpG-Free genes and now offers a custom CpG-Free gene service. Send us the sequence of your gene of interest, and our specialists will design, synthesize, and clone into an expression vector, a CpG-Free allele of this gene. We guarantee that the sequence of the synthetic gene will 100% match the designed sequence.