A simple, dual direct expression plasmid system in prokaryotic and mammalian cells

We introduce a simple, dual direct cloning plasmid system (pgMAX-II) for gene expression analysis in both prokaryotic (Escherichia coli) and mammalian cells. This system, which uses a prokaryotic expression unit adapted from the pgMAX system and a mammalian promoter, is effective for subcloning using the DNA topoisomerase II toxin CcdB. Given that molecular biological cloning systems broadly rely on E. coli for rapid growth, the proposed concept may have wide applicability beyond mammalian cells.