Adeno-associated Virus (AAV) Plasmids

Adeno-associated viruses (AAV) are small viruses originally discovered as contaminants of adenovirus stocks. One major advantage of using AAV for research is that it is replication-limited and typically not known to cause disease in humans. For these reasons, AAVs are generally contained at lower biosafety levels and elicit relatively low immunological effects in vivo. While AAVs can be handled at BSL-1, AAVs expressing oncogenes or toxins should be handled at BSL-2.

AAV can transduce both dividing and non-dividing cells with a low immune response and low toxicity. Although recombinant AAV does not integrate into the host genome, transgene expression can be long-lived. The utility of AAV is currently limited by its small packaging capacity (∼4.5 kb including ITRs), though there is a great deal of interest and effort directed toward expanding this capacity.

Traditionally, AAV requires the presence of another "helper" virus, such as adenovirus or herpes virus, in order to propagate. This is due to the reliance of the AAV on certain exogenous gene products that mediate AAV replication. This requirement has been circumvented with “helper-virus free systems,” which enable the production of infectious AAV particles without the use of a helper virus. Instead, specific gene products can be provided by helper plasmids (e.g., pHelper) and specific packaging cell lines (e.g., HEK293 cells) during AAV production.

Read our AAV Guide for more information about:

• AAV components
• Common uses of AAV
• Viral integration
• AAV serotypes
• Pseudotyping

Ready-to-use viral preparations for select plasmids are now available through Addgene. Visit our viral service page to learn more about our viral service, and see which plasmids are available as viral preparations.

AAV Packaging Plasmids

The following tables contain a list of packaging plasmids that are useful to produce AAV. In order to generate infectious AAV particles, a helper plasmid (encoding adenovirus E4, E2A and VA) and a RepCap plasmid (encoding AAV Rep and respective capsid protein which determines the AAV serotype) are used in conjunction with the plasmid that encodes the viral genome (typically called cis-plasmid or transfer plasmid).

Helper Plasmid
ID	Plasmid	Serotype	Description	PI
112867	pAdDeltaF6	All	Helper plasmid for AAV packaging, expressing adenovirus E4, E2A and VA	Wilson

RepCap Plasmids for Serotypes Available as a Viral Service at Addgene
ID	Plasmid	Capsid	Description	PI
112862	pAAV2/1	AAV1	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2 and Cap1	Wilson
104963	pAAV2/2	AAV2	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2 and Cap2	Fan
104964	pAAV2/5	AAV5	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2 and Cap5	Fan
112863	pAAV2/7	AAV7	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2 and Cap7	Wilson
112864	pAAV2/8	AAV8	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2 and Cap8	Wilson
112865	pAAV2/9n	AAV9	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2 and Cap9	Wilson
112866	pAAV2/rh10	AAVrh10	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2, and rh10 capsid	Wilson
81070	rAAV2-retro helper	AAV retrograde	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2 and retrograde capsid	Karpova
103005	pUCmini-iCAP-PHP.eB	PHP.eB	AAV packaging plasmid (non-standard), expressing Rep2 and PHP.eB Cap controlled by tTA-TRE amplification system	Gradinaru
103006	pUCmini-iCAP-PHP.S	PHP.S	AAV packaging plasmid (non-standard), expressing Rep2 and PHP.S Cap controlled by tTA-TRE amplification system	Gradinaru
127847	pUCmini-iCAP-PHP.V1	PHP.V1	AAV packaging plasmid (non-standard), expressing Rep2 and PHP.V1 Cap controlled by tTA-TRE amplification system	Gradinaru
175004	pUCmini-iCAP-AAV.CAP-B10	B10	AAV packaging plasmid (non-standard), expressing Rep2 and B10 Cap controlled by tTA-TRE amplification system	Gradinaru
175005	pUCmini-iCAP-AAV.CAP-B22	B22	AAV packaging plasmid (non-standard), expressing Rep2 and B22 Cap controlled by tTA-TRE amplification system	Gradinaru
185136	pUCmini-iCAP-AAV.MaCPNS1	MaCPNS1	AAV packaging plasmid (non-standard), expressing Rep2 and MaCPNS1 Cap controlled by tTA-TRE amplification system	Gradinaru
185137	pUCmini-iCAP-AAV.MaCPNS2	MaCPNS2	AAV packaging plasmid (non-standard), expressing Rep2 and MaCPNS2 Cap controlled by tTA-TRE amplification system	Gradinaru

RepCap Plasmids for Serotypes Not Available as a Viral Service at Addgene
ID	Plasmid	Capsid	Description	PI
64839	7M8	7M8	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2 and 7M8 capsid	Flannery, Schaffer
64867	shh10	shh10	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2 and engineered shh10 capsid	Flannery, Schaffer
65213	pSR651	AAV1	Baculovirus-mediated rAAV production: Expresses bicistronic AAV-2 rep gene and polycistronic AAV-1 cap gene in Sf9 insect cells	Kotin
65214	pSR657	AAV2	Baculovirus-mediated rAAV production: Expresses bicistronic AAV-2 rep gene and polycistronic AAV-2 cap gene in Sf9 insect cells	Kotin
65215	pSR646	AAV6	Baculovirus-mediated rAAV production: Expresses bicistronic AAV-2 rep gene and polycistronic AAV-6 cap gene in Sf9 insect cells	Kotin
65216	pSR660	AAV8	Baculovirus-mediated rAAV production: Expresses bicistronic AAV-2 rep gene and polycistronic AAV-8 cap gene in Sf9 insect cells	Kotin
92307	pAnc80L65AAP	Anc80L65AAP	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2 and ancestral capsid Anc80L65 with endogenous AAP	Vandenberghe
68837	pAnc80L65	Anc80L65	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2 and ancestral capsid Anc80L65	Vandenberghe
78504	pGG-B1	B1	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2 and B1 capsid (backbone may yield higher titers than pAR-B1)	Sena-Esteves
78503	pAR-B1(1986.1)	B1	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2 and B1 capsid	Sena-Esteves
103002	pUCmini-iCAP-PHP.B	PHP.B	non-standard AAV2 rep-AAV-PHP.B cap plasmid with AAV cap expression controlled by a tTA-TRE amplification system	Gradinaru
103003	pUCmini-iCAP-PHP.B2	PHP.B2	non-standard AAV2 rep-AAV-PHP.B2 cap plasmid with AAV cap expression controlled by a tTA-TRE amplification system	Gradinaru
103004	pUCmini-iCAP-PHP.B3	PHP.B3	non-standard AAV2 rep-AAV-PHP.B3 cap plasmid with AAV cap expression controlled by a tTA-TRE amplification system	Gradinaru
110770	pRepCap6	AAV6	pRepCap6 contains both rep and cap genes from the AAV6 genome, but lacks the viral terminal repeats (Rutledge et al., 1998). It lacks adenovirus helper functions required for stock production.	Russell
127848	pUCmini-iCAP-PHP.V2	PHP.V2	non-standard AAV2 rep-AAV-PHP.V2 cap plasmid with AAV cap expression controlled by a tTA-TRE amplification system	Gradinaru
127849	pUCmini-iCAP-PHP.B4	PHP.B4	non-standard AAV2 rep-AAV-PHP.B4 cap plasmid with AAV cap expression controlled by a tTA-TRE amplification system	Gradinaru
127851	pUCmini-iCAP-PHP.N	PHP.N	non-standard AAV2 rep-AAV-PHP.N cap plasmid with AAV cap expression controlled by a tTA-TRE amplification system	Gradinaru
129024	pProvector_AAV2_586_PLGLAR	AAV2_586_PLGLAR	Recombinant AAV2 rep/cap plasmid modified to include an 18 amino acid peptide at cap position 586.	Suh
130877	pAAV2-N587X	AAV2-N587X	Encodes the AAV2 capsid with the N587 residue replaces with a TAG stop codon	Mali
130878	pAAV-DJ-N589X	AAV-DJ-N589X	Encodes the AAV-DJ capsid with the N589 residue replaced with a TAG stop codon	Mali
166921	AAV-F in pAR-9	AAV-F	AAV rep/cap plasmid. Capsid is mouse brain tropic AAV-F	Maguire
170716	Olig001	Olig001	Olig001 encodes a novel AAV capsid that exhibits preferential oligodendrocyte tropism in the CNS	McCown
183749	kiCAP-AAV-BI30	AAV-BI30	AAV-BI30 Rep-Cap plasmid for production of AAV-BI30, a capsid with tropism for CNS endothelial cells.	Deverman
184539	rAAV2/cMG	AAV-cMG.QRP	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2 and AAV-cMG.QRP capsid	Luo
184540	rAAV2/MG1.1	AAV-cMG.WPP	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2 and AAV-cMG.WPP capsid	Luo
184541	rAAV2/MG1.2	AAV-MG1.2	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2 and AAV-MG1.2 capsid	Luo
184542	rAAV2/cMG.WPP	AAV-MG1.1	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2 and AAV-MG1.1 capsid	Luo
184543	rAAV2/cMG.QRP	AAV-cMG	AAV packaging plasmid, expressing Rep2 and AAV-cMG capsid	Luo
184592	pUCmini-iCAP-AAV9.452sub.LUNG1	AAV9.452sub.LUNG1	non-standard AAV2 rep-AAV9.452sub.LUNG1 cap plasmid with AAV cap expression controlled by a tTA-TRE amplification system for mouse lung transduction after intravenous injection	Gradinaru
196679	kiCAP-AAV-MDV1A	MDV1A	Rep/Cap plasmid for the production of MDV1A, an AAV capsid with CNS tropism in mice.	Sabeti
196680	kiCAP-AAV-MDV1B	MDV1B	Rep/Cap plasmid for the production of MDV1B, an AAV capsid with CNS tropism in mice.	Sabeti
196681	kiCAP-AAV-M.Mus.1	M.Mus.1	Rep/Cap plasmid for the production of M.Mus.1, an AAV capsid with CNS tropism in mice.	Sabeti
196682	kiCAP-AAV-M.Mus.2	M.Mus.2	Rep/Cap plasmid for the production of M.Mus.2, an AAV capsid with CNS tropism in mice.	Sabeti
196683	kiCAP-AAV-PAL1A	PAL1A	Rep/Cap plasmid for the production of PAL1A, an AAV capsid with CNS tropism in macaques.	Sabeti
196684	kiCAP-AAV-PAL1B	PAL1B	Rep/Cap plasmid for the production of PAL1B, an AAV capsid with CNS tropism in macaques.	Sabeti
196685	kiCAP-AAV-PAL1C	PAL1C	Rep/Cap plasmid for the production of PAL1C, an AAV capsid with CNS tropism in macaques.	Sabeti
196686	kiCAP-AAV-PAL1D	PAL1D	Rep/Cap plasmid for the production of PAL1D, an AAV capsid with CNS tropism in macaques.	Sabeti
196687	kiCAP-AAV-M.Fas.1	M.Fas.1	Rep/Cap plasmid for the production of M.Fas.1, an AAV capsid with CNS tropism in macaques.	Sabeti
196688	kiCAP-AAV-M.Fas.2	M.Fas.2	Rep/Cap plasmid for the production of M.Fas.2, an AAV capsid with CNS tropism in macaques.	Sabeti
197565	AAV-PR rep/cap	AAV-PR	encodes AAV-PR capsid that transduces pericytes and smooth muscle cells in mice after systemic delivery	Maguire
198014	pCMV-AAV2cap	AAV2	For high-level expression of the AAV2 cap gene, suitable for use with pCMV-Rep78/68 SSM library	Church
199745	pAAV.cc81-mut	AAV.cc81	Expresses AAV2 Rep and AAV.cc81 Cap	Asokan
199746	pAAV.cc84-mut	AAV.cc84	Expresses AAV2 Rep and AAV.cc84 Cap	Asokan
200257	pArk313	Ark313	Ark313 rep/cap	Eyquem
201903	pUCmini-iCAP-PHP.eC	PHP.eC	non-standard AAV2 rep-AAV-PHP.eC cap plasmid with AAV cap expression controlled by a tTA-TRE amplification system	Gradinaru
203532	iCAP-BI-28-KanR	AAV-BI28	RepCap for AAV production	Deverman
203533	iCAP-BI-48-KanR	AAV-BI48	RepCap for AAV production	Deverman
203534	iCAP-BI-49-KanR	AAV-BI49	RepCap for AAV production	Deverman
203535	iCAP-BI-62-KanR	AAV-BI62	RepCap for AAV production	Deverman
203536	iCAP-BI-65-KanR	AAV-BI65	RepCap for AAV production	Deverman
205991	AAV2/9 REP-AAP-ΔCAP	AAV9 (Rep-AAP-deltaCap)	Rep and AAP protein expression for AAV CREATE libraries	Gradinaru
206504	AAV-KP1	AAV-KP1	AAV packaging vector containing AAV2 rep and KP1 cap and partial AAV2 p5 promoter	Kay
206512	AAV-LK03	AAV-LK03	AAV packaging vector containing AAV2 rep and LK03 cap and partial AAV2 p5 promoter	Kay
206513	AAV-AM	AAV-AM	AAV packaging vector containing AAV2 rep and AM cap and partial AAV2 p5 promoter	Kay
209780	pUCmini-iCAP-AAV1.X1	AAV1-X1	non-standard AAV2 rep-AAV1-X1 cap plasmid with AAV cap expression controlled by a tTA-TRE amplification system	Gradinaru
212708	pAAV SCH9	SCH9	A SCHEMA evolved AAV variant effective at targeting subventricular NSCs	Schaffer
213968	AAV8R-12 Capsid	AAV8R12	AAV packaging vector carrying AAV2 rep gene and Cap8R modified AAV8 capsid coding sequence	Lu
213974	AAV-DJ8R	AAV-DJR	AAV packaging vector containing AAV2-rep gene and CapDJR modified AAV-DJ8 capsid coding sequence	Lu

AAV Plasmids

This table contains a general list of plasmids that are useful in the production of AAV. Many of these plasmids encode the AAV genome (i.e., the genetic information that will be contained in the virion) and/or can be used to generate infectious AAV particles. Additional helper plasmids (which may not be available at Addgene) may be required to produce infectious AAV particles. You can search or sort this table based on plasmid name, species, gene name, and more.