mammalian promoter - (Nov/13/2009 )

Hi all,

I have a gene in PCR4-TOPO vector. It has got T3 and T7 promoter. Are these mammalian promoters? I wanted to transfect but am not sure if this is an expression vector. The manual dosent say anything about it. Also it has a LacZ operon. Whats the use of it?

pls pardon my naivity.

Thanks

No, these are not mammalian promoters, and it will not express in mammalian cells. LacZ is useful to determine the presence of the insert on initial cloning.