AAV8 Luciferase-mCherry

Adeno-Associated Virus serotype 8 (AAV8) was isolated from rhesus monkey tissue, and the AAV8 rep and cap nucleotide sequences have 88% homology with AAV7 and 82% with AAV2. AAV8 exhibits greater transduction efficiency in the liver than other AAV serotypes. AAV8 and 9 have recently been used to correct disease-causing mutations and improve muscle function in mouse models of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. These AAV particles constitutively express the firefly (Photinus pyralis) luciferase and mCherry genes connected via a T2A linker, under the control of a CMV promoter. The T2A self-cleaving peptide (derived from Thosea asigna virus 2A) leads to the efficient cleavage of the transcript and expression of luciferase and mCherry as two separate proteins.