Expression
MultiGene
MultiLabel
Toggle
FlexTec
Inquiry

Multi-gene expression / multi-protein expression systems

Multi-protein assemblies dominate a host of biological processes such as transcription, translation, RNA splicing, signaling cascades, protein trasnport, trafficking and degradation, etc. Life science researchers have become increasingly interested in studying these complexes in more detail as they realize that no protein works in isolation in these processes and thus should ideally also not be studied in isolation when investigating its context-dependent function in cells.

Another avenue where such protein clusters become important, is in industrial biotechnology/metabolic engineering, i.e. when trying to coax microbes into producing complex, valuable substances, to tune them for bio-remediation, etc. Here, enzymes or enzyme cascades from one or different organisms can be re-built in other (micro)organisms, i.e. in a heterologous expression system that usually has the advantage of being more amenable to genetic engineering, e.g. E. coli.
For a long time, co-transfection was a method of choice to insert foreign genes into ones organism of choice. Gradually, more sophisticated technologies for the transfer of multiple genes/proteins have been developed, along with ways of maintaining them stably over long periods in the host.


Systems I: MultiLabel
Culturing cells that have been modified to express foreign genes has become one of the mainstays of functional investigations in cellular physiology and biochemistry and more so in the production of biologically relevant molecules, e.g. amino acids, hormones, etc.
Co-expression of proteins in mammalian cells has traditionally relied on co-transfection of vectors carrying one or maybe two gene expression cassettes. It becomes more challenging when you are trying to express three or more proteins. Yet, you often wish or need to simultaneously express a bunch of proteins, e.g. to analyze cellular localization, to study signal pathways in the cells or to reprogram e.g. stem cells to change their developmental fate as a prerequisite for future therapeutic applications in stem-cell therapy.

MultiLabel is a suite of vectors specifically designed for multi-protein expression in mammalian cells.

You can clone your gene of interest in any of the acceptors and donors and get multi-gene assemblies by recombination. You may express proteins transiently or opt to stably integrate them in the genome. Currently, three acceptor and two donor vectors are available.

Systems II: flexTEC systems
These are the ready-to-use versions of the Toggle concept for the construction and expression of multi-gene expression constructs.
All systems contain two acceptor and two donor vectors each and either of two antibiotic selectors. Alternative selectors can be provided.