pDRIVE-EF1

EF1 promoter (Ubiquitous) in pDRIVE expression plasmid

The EF-1 alpha gene encoding elongation factor-1 alpha is an enzyme which catalyzes the GTP-dependent binding of aminoacyl-tRNA to ribosomes.

EF-1α is one of the most abundant proteins in eukaryotic cells and is expressed in almost all kinds of mammalian cells.

The promoter of this ’housekeeping’ gene exhibits a strong activity, higher than viral promoters such as SV40 and RSV promoters [1] and, on the contrary to the CMV promoter, yields persistent expression of the transgene in vivo [2].

InvivoGen has cloned the EF-1α promoter region of different species, among them the chimpanzee and rat. These sequences have not been described yet.

They share respectively 98.46, 47.73 and 45.05% homology with the sequence of the human EF-1α promoter.

References:

1. Kim DW. et al. 1990. Use of human elongation factor 1 alpha promoter as a versatile and efficient expression system. Gene. 91(2):217-23.
2. Guo ZS. et al. 1996. Evaluation of promoter strength for hepatic gene expression in vivo following adenovirus-mediated gene transfer. Gene Ther. 3(9):802-10.