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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. Wild-type lentiviruses have been engineered into viral vectors for safe use in the lab.

One safety feature of lentiviral vectors is that the components necessary to produce an infectious viral particle (a virion) are divided among multiple plasmids:

  • Transfer plasmid — contains transgene, sgRNA, or shRNA of interest flanked by LTRs
  • Packaging plasmid — contains packaging and regulatory genes; one plasmid in second-generation, two plasmids in third-generation
  • Envelope plasmid — contains packaging gene env

This collection highlights popular second- and third-generation lentiviral packaging, envelope, and transfer plasmids available at Addgene. Read our Lentiviral Vector Guide for more information about lentiviral components, generations, viral production, and viral safety.

Popular Lentiviral Transfer Plasmids

Looking for lentiviral plasmids to express a CRISPR gRNA? Browse our catalog for lentiviral CRISPR plasmids for gRNA expression.

   ID Plasmid Generation Description PI
8453 pLKO.1 puro 3rd U6-driven shRNA empty plasmid with puromycin selection. See plasmid 24150 for hygromycin selection. Bob Weinberg
10878 pLKO.1 – TRC cloning plasmid 3rd U6-driven shRNA empty plasmid. Includes a stuffer for easy cloning. David Root
14748 pLKO.3G 3rd U6-driven shRNA empty plasmid with EGFP marker. See plasmid 14749 for Thy1.1 selection. Christophe Benoist and Diane Mathis
21915 Tet-pLKO-puro 3rd Inducible expression of shRNA with puromycin selection. See plasmid 21916 for neomycin selection. Dmitri Wiederschain
11578 pSico 3rd Conditional (Cre-lox), stable expression of shRNAs; addition of Cre turns on shRNA expression. See Ventura et al. (2004) for more variants. Tyler Jacks
19319 pLJM1-EGFP 3rd CMV-driven EGFP fusion with puromycin resistance. Can be used for cDNA expression. David Sabatini
14883 FUGW 3rd hUbC-driven EGFP. Can be used for cDNA expression. David Baltimore
12247 pLVTHM 2nd EF-1a-driven GFP and shRNA under the control of a tet-responsive H1 promoter. Didier Trono
11651 pLVUT-tTR-KRAB 3rd Inducible expression of transgene or shRNA. See Szulc et al. (2006) for more variants. Patrick Aebischer and Didier Trono
11795 pLL3.7 3rd Expresses shRNA under mouse U6 promoter. CMV-EGFP reporter cassette is included to monitor expression. Luk Parijs
11619 pLB 3rd Modification of pLL3.7 with added genetic elements known to prevent epigenetic silencing. Expresses shRNA under mouse U6 promoter. CMV-EGFP reporter cassette is included to monitor expression. Stephan 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. Garry Nolan
12257 pWPXL 2nd EF-1alpha-driven constitutive transgene expression. Contains intron that gives high expression. Didier Trono
12254 pWPI 2nd EF-1alpha driven constitutive transgene expression and EGFP coexpression. Didier 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 reporter. Linzhao 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 Campeau et al. (2009) for additional variants. Eric Campeau
39481 pLenti-puro 3rd CMV-driven expression of cDNA with puromycin selection. Ie-Ming Shih
25737 pSLIK-Hygro 3rd Tet-based inducible shRNA or cDNA expression, gateway plasmid, and constitutive hygromycin selection. See Shin et al. (2006) for additional variants. Iain Fraser
15948 pLOVE 3rd Tet inducible gateway destination plasmid for cDNA expression. Miguel Ramalho-Santos
24129 pULTRA 3rd Bicistronic expression of EGFP and the gene of interest. Can also express shRNA (cloning H1-shRNA cassettes into the unique SnaBI site in the 3´-LTR). Find more pULTRA versions. Malcolm Moore
25895 pLX301 3rd Gateway plasmid for CMV driven expression of cDNA. See Yang et al. (2011) for additional variants. David Root
44012 pInducer20 3rd Tet-inducible lentivirus for ORF expression, multicistronic design enables tracking of viral transduction. See plasmid 46948 for additional variant. Stephen Elledge
44011 pInducer10-mir-RUP-PheS 3rd Lentiviral shRNA plasmid (pGIPz based) for inducible knockdown, multicistronic design enables tracking of viral transduction. See Meerbrey et al. (2011) for additional variants. Stephen Elledge
21373 pHIV-EGFP 3rd EF-1alpha driven expression of cDNA and and EGFP co-expression. See plasmid 21374 for dTomato version. Bryan Welm
21916 Tet-pLKO-neo 3rd Inducible expression of shRNA with neomycin selection. See plasmid 21915 for puromycin selection. Dmitri Wiederschain
36084 pLV-mCherry 3rd CMV driven expression of mCherry fusion. See 36083 and 36086 for other FP variants. Pantelis Tsoulfas
41393 pCW57.1 3rd Inducible lentiviral expression, TRE-gateway, with puromycin selection. See Root Lab pLEX and pLIX Gateway backbones for additional variants. David Root
85140 pLV-hTERT-IRES-hygro 3rd Lentiviral expression of hTERT, used to create immortalized cell lines. See Hayer et al. (2016) for additional selection markers. Tobias Meyer
86849 pBOB-EF1-FastFUCCI-Puro 3rd Encodes FUCCI reporters for cell cycle analysis. Puromycin selection. Kevin Brindle and Duncan Jodrell
17448 pLenti CMV GFP Puro (658-5) 3rd eGFP expression with CMV promoter and puromycin selection. See Campeau et al. (2009) for additional variants. Eric Campeau and Paul Kaufman
102930 pLJC5-Tmem192-3xHA 3rd Contains a lysosomal tag. See Abu-Remaileh et al. (2017) for additional variants. David Sabatini
171123 pLVX-TetOne-Puro-GFP 3rd Dox-inducible expression of GFP. Jason Sheltzer
20342 FUW-M2rtTA 3rd Contains reverse tetracycline transactivator. Rudolf Jaenisch
131626 pHAGE-mt-mKeima 3rd Expression of mitochondrial mKeima. Richard Youle
119816 pLentipuro3/TO/V5-GW/EGFP-Firefly Luciferase 3rd Expression of EGFP-Firefly luciferase fusion protein. Ethan Abel
135991 pSLCAR-CD19-28z 3rd Modular CD28-CD3z CAR backbone. See Bloemberg et al. (2020) for additional CAR backbones. Scott McComb
145025 TFORF3549 3rd For barcoding transcription factors for identification in pooled screens. Part of the MORF Collection. Feng Zhang

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Popular Lentiviral Packaging Plasmids

   ID Plasmid Generation Description PI
1732 pCPRDEnv 2nd Part of the FELIX vector system. Expresses gag-pol and rev. Garry Nolan
8455 pCMV-dR8.2 dvpr 2nd Contains gag, pol, rev, tat, vif, and nef. Can be used with 2nd and 3rd generation transfer plasmids. Bob Weinberg
12251 pMDLg/pRRE 3rd Contains gag and pol. Can be used with 3rd generation transfer plasmids along with a plasmid encoding rev. Didier Trono
12253 pRSV-Rev 3rd Contains rev. Can be used with 3rd generation transfer plasmids along with additional packaging components. Didier Trono
12260 psPAX2 2nd Contains gag, pol, rev, and tat. Can be used with 2nd and 3rd generation transfer plasmids. Didier Trono
12263 pCMV delta R8.2 2nd Contains gag, pol, rev, and tat. Can be used with 2nd and 3rd generation transfer plasmids. Didier Trono
17531 pCD/NL-BH*DDD 2nd Contains gag-pol, tat, and rev. Use with envelope plasmids from Jakob Reiser. Jakob Reiser
63586 psPAX2-D64V 2nd For making integrase-deficient lentivirus. David Rawlings and Andrew Scharenberg
22502 pCEP4-tat N/A Expression of tat. Increases viral titer. Sergey Kasparov
22500 pNHP 2nd Contains gag, pol, rev, and tat. Sergey Kasparov

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Popular Lentiviral Envelope Plasmids

   ID Plasmid Description PI
1733 pCI-VSVG VSV-G recommended for the FELIX (FIV-based) system. Garry Nolan
8454 pCMV-VSV-G VSV-G-expressing envelope plasmid. Bob Weinberg
12259 pMD2.G VSV-G-expressing envelope plasmid. Didier Trono
17576 pLTR-RD114A Hybrid of RD114 Env GP and MLV 4070A Env GP. Good for work in human MSCs. Use with second-generation packaging construct encoding tat. Jakob Reiser
35617 pCAG-Eco Ecotropic MLV expressing envelope plasmid. Arthur Nienhuis and Patrick Salmon
17532 pLTR-G Expression of VSV-G glycoprotein (Indiana strain). Use with second-generation packaging construct encoding tat. Jakob Reiser
35616 pCAG-VSVG VSV-G-expressing envelope plasmid. Arthur Nienhuis and Patrick Salmon
22501 pHEF-VSVG VSV-G-expressing envelope plasmid. Sergey Kasparov

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Content last reviewed: 23 October 2025

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