Use of the 2A sequence from foot-and-mouth disease virus in the generation of retroviral vectors for gene therapy.

We describe the construction of retroviral plasmid vectors in which two genes are linked by a minimum of 96 nucleotides encoding the 2A sequence from the picornavirus foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). Transcription and translation gives rise to a bicistronic mRNA and two independent protein products. The system offers advantages to other alternative ways to create polycistronic mRNAs and can be used in gene therapy delivery vectors.