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 |
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 |
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 |
Additional Resources
Content last reviewed: 23 October 2025
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