Construction of three new Gateway(®) expression plasmids for Trypanosoma cruzi

We present here three expression plasmids for Trypanosoma cruzi adapted to the Gateway(®) recombination cloning system. Two of these plasmids were designed to express trypanosomal proteins fused to a double tag for tandem affinity purification (TAPtag). The TAPtag and Gateway(®) cassette were introduced into an episomal (pTEX) and an integrative (pTREX) plasmid. Both plasmids were assayed by introducing green fluorescent protein (GFP) by recombination and the integrity of the double-tagged protein was determined by western blotting and immunofluorescence microscopy. The third Gateway adapted vector assayed was the inducible pTcINDEX. When tested with GFP, pTcINDEX-GW showed a good response to tetracycline, being less leaky than its precursor (pTcINDEX).