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Lentiviral Plasmids


Lentiviruses, a subset of retroviruses, are some of the most common and useful types of viruses used in research. Lentivirus can transduce both dividing and non-dividing cells without a significant immune response. These viruses also integrate stably into the host genome, enabling long term transgene expression. There are some safety considerations to evaluate when working with lentivirus: these viruses are based on HIV-1, which may require additional lab biosafety procedures. Additionally, because this virus integrates randomly into the host genome, it has the potential for insertional mutagensis. The 2nd and 3rd generation lentiviral systems available at Addgene have been designed for increased researcher safety.

Read our Lentiviral Guide for more information about:

  • Lentiviral components
  • 2nd versus 3rd generation lentiviral systems
  • Viral production
  • Frequently asked questions about lentivirus use
  • Glossary of commonly used lentiviral terms

Popular Lentiviral Envelope and Packaging Plasmids

One safety feature of lentivirus used in research is that the components necessary to produce an infectious viral particle (a virion) are generally divided among multiple plasmids. Some plasmids (typically called packaging and envelope plasmids) encode components of the viral capsid and envelope and are used in conjunction with the plasmid that encodes the viral genome (typically called the transfer plasmid). This table lists common lentiviral envelope and packaging plasmids that can be used with 2nd and 3rd generation lentivirus technologies.

   ID Plasmid Generation Type Description PI
12253 pRSV-Rev 3rd Packaging Contains Rev; can be used with 3rd generation transfer plasmids along with additional packaging components Trono
63586 psPAX2-D64V 2nd Packaging For making Integrase deficient lentivirus Rawlings, Scharenberg
12251 pMDLg/pRRE 3rd Packaging Contains Gag and Pol; can be used with 3rd generation transfer plasmids along with a plasmid encoding Rev Trono
12260 psPAX2 2nd Packaging Contains Gag, Pol, Rev, and Tat; can be used with 2nd and 3rd generation transfer plasmids Trono
12263 pCMV delta R8.2 2nd Packaging Contains Gag, Pol, Rev, and Tat; can be used with 2nd and 3rd generation transfer plasmids Trono
12259 pMD2.G N/A Envelope VSV-G-expressing envelope plasmid Trono
8454 pCMV-VSV-G N/A Envelope VSV-G-expressing envelope plasmid Weinberg
8455 pCMV-dR8.2 dvpr 2nd Packaging Contains Gag, Pol, Rev, Tat, Vif, and Nef; can be used with 2nd and 3rd generation transfer plasmids Weinberg
1733 pCI-VSVG N/A Envelope VSV-G recommended for the FELIX (FIV-based) system Nolan
22502 pCEP4-tat N/A Packaging Expression of tat; increases viral titer Kasparov
22501 pHEF-VSVG N/A Envelope VSV-G-expressing envelope plasmid Kasparov
22500 pNHP 2nd Packaging Contains gag, pol, tat, rev Kasparov
1732 pCPRDEnv 2nd Packaging part of the FELIX vector system, expresses Gag-Pol and Rev Nolan
35617 pCAG-Eco N/A Envelope Ecotropic MLV expressing envelope plasmid Nienhuis and Salmon
35616 pCAG-VSVG N/A Envelope VSV-G-expressing envelope plasmid Nienhuis and Salmon
17532 pLTR-G 2nd Envelope Expression of VSV-G glycoprotein (Indiana strain). Use with packaging construct encoding Tat. Reiser
17531 pCD/NL-BH*DDD 2nd Packaging Contains Gag/Pol, Tat, Rev. Use with envelope plasmids from Jakob Reiser. Reiser
17576 pLTR-RD114A 2nd Envelope Hybrid of RD114 Env GP and MLV 4070A Env GP. Good for work in human MSCs. Use packaging construct encoding Tat. Reiser

Popular Lentiviral Transfer Plasmids

The lentiviral genome (i.e., the genetic material enclosed in the viral particle) is delivered to a target cell upon infection. When lentivirus is used for research, it is the lentiviral genome that encodes genetic material that the researcher wants delivered to specific target cells. This genome is encoded by plasmids called "transfer plasmids," which can be modified to encode a wide range of gene products. The main restrictions on a lentiviral transfer plasmid are size (i.e., a limited number of basepairs of nucleic acid can fit into a viral particle) and toxicity of the gene product (i.e., if the gene encoded by the transfer plasmid is toxic to mammalian cells, it can be difficult to efficiently produce viral particles). This table lists lentiviral transfer plasmids that can be used with 2nd and 3rd generation lentivirus technologies.

Looking for lentiviral plasmids to express your CRISPR gRNA? Please see our CRISPR Empty gRNA plasmids table and search "lenti".

   ID Plasmid Generation Description PI
8453 pLKO.1 puro 3rd U6-driven shRNA empty plasmid with puro resistance. See plasmid 24150 for hygro resistance. Weinberg
10878 pLKO.1 – TRC cloning plasmid 3rd U6-driven shRNA empty plasmid; includes a stuffer for easy cloning Root
14748 pLKO.3G 3rd U6-driven shRNA empty plasmid with EGFP marker. See plasmid 14749 for Thy1.1 selection. Benoist and Mathis
21915 Tet-pLKO-puro 3rd inducible expression of shRNA; puromycin selection. See plasmid 21916 for Neo selection. Wiederschain
11578 pSico 3rd Conditional (Cre-lox), stable expression of shRNAs; addition of Cre turns on shRNA expression. See article for more cre-lox shRNA expression variants. Jacks
19319 pLJM1-EGFP 3rd CMV-driven EGFP fusion; can be used for cDNA expression; puro resistance Sabatini
14883 FUGW 3rd hUbC-driven EGFP; can be used for cDNA expression Baltimore
12247 pLVTHM 2nd EF-1a-driven GFP and shRNA under the control of a tet-responsive H1 promoter Trono
11651 pLVUT-tTR-KRAB 3rd Inducible expression of transgene or shRNA. See article for detailed information about cloning & additional plasmids. Aebischer and Trono
11795 pLL3.7 3rd Expresses shRNA under mouse U6 promoter; CMV-EGFP reporter cassette is included to monitor expression Parijs
11619 pLB 3rd Modification of pLL3.7; Genetic elements known to prevent epigenetic silencing were added; Expresses shRNA under mouse U6 promoter; CMV-EGFP reporter cassette is included to monitor expression Kissler
1730 pLionII 3rd FIV-derived (FELIX) plasmid with a chimeric 5’LTR, Any expression cassette (promoter and gene of interest) can be cloned into the plasmid. Nolan
12257 pWPXL 2nd EF-1alpha driven constitutive transgene expression, contains intron that gives you high expression. Trono
12254 pWPI 2nd EF-1alpha driven constitutive transgene expression and EGFP coexpression. Trono
17619 EF.CMV.RFP 2nd EF-1 alpha promoter for transgene and CMV drives expression of RFP as a reporter. See plasmid 17618 for GFP plasmid. Cheng
17452 pLenti CMV Puro DEST 3rd Gateway destination plasmid with constitutive or inducible expression of cDNAs, shRNAs or miRNAs, and use a wide variety of drug selection markers. See article for more variations. Campeau
39481 pLenti-puro 3rd CMV driven expression of cDNA. Puro selection. Shih
25737 pSLIK-Hygro 3rd Tet-based inducible shRNA or cDNA expression, gateway plasmid, constitutive Hygromycin resistance gene coexpression. See article for other versions of pSLIK. Fraser
15948 pLOVE 3rd Tet inducible gateway destination plasmid for cDNA expression Ramalho-Santos
24129 pULTRA 3rd bi-cistronic expression of EGFP and the gene of interest, also can express shRNA (cloning H1-shRNA cassettes into the unique SnaBI site in the 3´-LTR). See here for other versions of pULTRA. Moore
19319 pLJM1-EGFP 3rd for EGFP fusion; PGK driven puromycin Sabatini
25895 pLX301 3rd Gateway plasmid for CMV driven expression of cDNA. See article for alternative versions of this plasmid. Root
44012 pInducer20 3rd Tet-inducible lentivirus for ORF expression, multicistronic design enables tracking of viral transduction. Also see plasmid 46948 . Elledge
44011 pInducer10-mir-RUP-PheS 3rd Lentiviral shRNA plasmid (pGIPz based) for inducible knockdown, multicistronic design enables tracking of viral transduction. See article for more similar plasmids. Elledge
21373 pHIV-EGFP 3rd EF-1alpha driven expression of cDNA and and EGFP co-expression. See plasmid 21374 for dtomato version. Welm
21916 Tet-pLKO-neo 3rd inducible expression of shRNA; neomycin selection. See plasmid 21915 for Puro resistance. Wiederschain
36084 pLV-mCherry 3rd CMV driven expression of mCherry fusion. See plasmids 36083 and 36086 for other FP variants. Tsoulfas
41393 pCW57.1 3rd Inducible lentiviral expression, TRE-gateway; PGK-rtTA-2A-puro. See article for more versions of this plasmid. Root


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