FIGURE 3

Comparison of bicistronic construct versus a dual plasmid transfection. BHK cells were transfected with 1 g/well of plasmid. Equimolar amounts of plasmids were added, and the total mass of DNA per transfection was kept equal by adding an unrelated plasmid (pBlueScript). Transfections and luciferase assays were performed as described in Materials and methods. Error bars indicate the standard error. Transfection with the bicistronic autogene construct (R011) resulted in expression levels that were two- to four-fold higher than the dual-plasmid transfection (autogene and reporter gene on separate plasmids). There is no luciferase expression in the absence of the autogene cassette.