Figure 1.

Construction and characteristic of the DNA vectors and Ad2-based vectors carrying the Gag protein of different HIV-1 subtypes. (A) Diagrammatic sketch of constructing pVAX-1 and Ad2 vectors carrying various Gag genes under CMV promoter and the gene structure of Gag. There are seven amino acid deletions in Gag protein encoded by 07BC-p6Δ7, while the deletions were supplemented in 07BC-wt through overlap PCR. (B) Western blotting analysis of the expression of various Gag proteins in HEK293 cells in 6-well plates transfected with plasmids encoding a codon-modified Gag sequence (pVAX-01AE, pVAX-07BC-p6Δ7, or pVAX-07BC-wt, 2 μg per well) or infected with recombinant Ad2 virus (Ad2-01AE, Ad2-07BC-p6Δ7, or Ad2-07BC-wt, 0.2 TCID50 per well). pVAX-empty plasmid and Ad2-empty virus were used as the negative control. The GAPDH blot examined in parallel served as an internal control.