2A Peptides Contribute to the Co-Expression of Proteins for Imaging and Genome Editing

Abstract

2A self-cleaving peptides (2A peptides), originally identified in a short oligopeptide sequence of foot and mouth disease RNA virus, consist of short amino acids that specify ribosome skipping. They enable the expression of multiple proteins within a single open reading frame through a co-translational cleavage event. The 2A-mediated co-expression system can overcome the problem of uneven expression of different proteins, and contributes to the development of leading technology for imaging and genome editing. It may also enable the evaluation of the expression levels of proteins through comparison of the intensity of their fluorescence. This review provides a recent overview of the 2A-mediated co-expression system and introduces several optimizations to improve cleavage efficiency for practical use.