pUdOs: Concise Plasmids for Bacterial and Mammalian Cells

The plasmids from
the Université d’Ottawa (pUdOs)
are 28 small plasmids each comprising one of four origins of replication
and one of seven selection markers, which together afford flexible
use in Escherichia coli and several
related gram-negative bacteria. The promoterless multicloning site
is insulated from upstream spurious promoters by strong transcription
terminators and contains type IIP or IIS restriction sites for conventional
or Golden Gate cloning. pUdOs can be converted into efficient expression
vectors through the insertion of a promoter at the user’s discretion.
For example, we demonstrate the utility of pUdOs as the backbone for
an improved version of a Type III Secretion System reporter in Shigella. In addition, we derive a series of pUdO-based
mammalian expression vectors, affording distinct levels of expression
and transfection efficiency comparable to commonly used mammalian
expression plasmids. Thus, pUdOs could advantageously replace traditional
plasmids in a wide variety of cell types and applications.