I am planning to express a gene(dCAS9) in neurons with CAG promoter based vector but only have a vector with CMV promoter with CAG enhancer. Are they the same regarding the expression efficiency in neurons?
Actually, CAG stands for CMV enhancer, chicken beta-Actin promoter and rabbit beta-Globin splice acceptor site, a combined fusion for very efficient expression in eukaryote cells. You'll have to check your vector map if you can to confirm the exact composition (or refer to the name to find from which backbone it is derived), but I agree with Evguenia that it might well be derived from pCAGGS and suitable for expression in neurons.
Hi Yu,
Is your CAG promoter based vector" derived from pCAGGS? If so, it bears CMV-IE enhancer and chicken beta-globin promoter, indeed a very efficient combination for expression in neural tube and differentiating neurons. As far as I know, it is more efficient than CMV but that may vary in different cell types. I would try to use your vector to express GFP and see how good is the expression you get in neurons. Sometimes a quick experiment tells you more than a pile of literature, and promoter efficiency varies a lot between cell types. CMV works fine in many cells, but in some it can be weaker than PGK.
Good luck!
Evguenia
Actually, CAG stands for CMV enhancer, chicken beta-Actin promoter and rabbit beta-Globin splice acceptor site, a combined fusion for very efficient expression in eukaryote cells. You'll have to check your vector map if you can to confirm the exact composition (or refer to the name to find from which backbone it is derived), but I agree with Evguenia that it might well be derived from pCAGGS and suitable for expression in neurons.
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