METHOD OF PREPARING A PLASMID HAVING BOTH THE ABILITY TO EXPRESS A RETROVIRAL GENE AND THE ABILITY TO PROCESS EXPRESSION PRODUCTS AFTER TRANSLATION, THE RESULTANT PLASMID AND EXPRESSION PRODUCTS THEREOF

摘要

The present invention provides a method of preparing plasmids having the ability of expressing retroviral genes and/or effecting the posttranslational processing of the encoded products, and the resultant plasmid and the expression products thereof. A method of the present invention is to prepare a plasmid by insertion-linking a cDNA fragment containing at least the protease gene from among retroviral genes with a highly expressing gene or an expression vector for the direct expression of its gene products, thereby causing expression of the retroviral genes, and at the same time, to process said expression product itself with the protease in that expression product, thereby mass-producing the retroviral genes. These retroviral genes comprise three kinds of core protein encoded by gag gene, and three kinds of enzymes encoded by pol gene, in the form of individual single mature or active proteins. Alternatively, the method of the present invention is to prepare a plasmid in which a cDNA fragment containing HIV nef gene region is inserted into a highly expressing gene and an expression vector for the direct expression of its gene products, thereby mass-producing Nef protein which is the expression product of nef gene.