pDRIVE-PGK-1

PGK-1 promoter (Ubiquitous) in pDRIVE expression plasmid

Pgk-1 is an X-linked gene encoding 3-phosphoglycerate kinase, an enzyme necessary in every cell for glycolysis.

The promoter region of the pgk-1 gene is rich in G and C nucleotides and contains five copies of the hexadeoxynucleotide, GGGCGG, a potential binding site for the Sp1 transcription factor, a CCAAT sequence, but no TATA box [1].

This promoter can efficiently drive high levels of expression of reporter genes (i.e. LacZ and GFP) and therapeutic genes, such as tumor-associated antigenes [2, 3]. Furthermore, in contrast to the CMV promoter, the PGK promoter yields sustained expression [2].

References:

1. Adra C.N. et al., 1987. Cloning and expression of the mouse pgk-1 gene and the nucleotide sequence of its promoter. Gene 60(1):65-74.
2. Gerolami R. et al. 2000. Gene transfer to hepatocellular carcinoma: transduction efficacy and transgene expression kinetics by using retroviral and lentiviral vectors. Cancer Gene Ther 7(9):1286-92.
3. Lizee G. et al., 2004. Lentivirus vector-mediated expression of tumor-associated epitopes by human antigen presenting cells. Hum Gene Ther. 15(4):393-404.