Differences between lentiviral packaging kits - (Jul/06/2010 )

Hello,

I have a question about the different packaging kits for lentiviral particle production sold by the various companies. At the moment I am looking to buy shRNA lentiviral plasmid to target my gene of interest. I've found a possible option on genecopeia but my supervisor pointed out that he has previously used plasmids in which the gfp expression is driven by U6 promoter whereas the plasmid that I found drives gfp expression under the cmv promoter. Because of this he said that our current packaging system may not work with this new plasmid.

My question is what part of the packaging system differs between the various companies and and as result determines whether a given plasmid will work with a particular packaging system? My background in mol biol is not very strong so apologies if I am missing something very obvious! I am just curious whether each company having their own packaging system is more advantageous to the company (makes them more money!!) or to the researcher? It just seems a little crazy to have to purchase a new packaging system for each individual plasmid.

Thanks,

smr86

smr86 on Tue Jul 6 10:28:38 2010 said:

I have not heard GFP expressed by U6 (pol III) promoter.
Your packaging system has nothing to do with U6 promoter and GFP expression.

smr86 on Tue Jul 6 10:28:38 2010 said:

Depending on the lentiviral vectors, I found the following web site showing the differences between two general packaging systems.
http://biosettia.com/php/05-lentiviral-system/lentiviral-packaging-mix

I have used their lentiviral shRNA vector, The cloning strategy is very very clever and efficient.