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