Efficient gene activation in cultured mammalian cells mediated by FLP recombinase-expressing recombinant adenovirus

A recombinant adenovirus (rAd) expressing Cre recombinase derived from bacteriophage P1 has already been extensively used for the conditional gene activation and inactivation strategies in mammalian systems. In this study, we generated AxCAFLP, a rAd expressing FLP recombinase derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and carried out quantitative comparisons with Cre-expressing rAd in both in vitro and in cultured cells to provide another efficient gene regulation system in mammalian cells. In the in vitro experiments, the relative recombination efficiency of FLP expressed in 293 cells infected with FLP-expressing rAd was approximately one-thirtieth that of Cre even at 30 degrees C, the optimum temperature for FLP activity, and was approximately one-ninetieth at 37 degrees C. Co-infection experiments in HeLa cells using a target rAd conditionally expressing LacZ under the control of FLP showed that an FLP-expressing rAd, infected at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 5, was able to activate the transgene in almost 100% of HeLa cells whereas the Cre-expressing rAd was sufficient at an MOI of 0.2. Since an MOI of 5 is ordinarily used in rAd experiments, these results showed that the FLP-expressing rAd is useful for gene activation strategies and is probably applicable to a sequential gene regulation system in combination with Cre-expressing rAd in mammalian cells.