Plasmid vectors are circular strands of DNA, found in virions, that are used in genetic engineering to integrate new genes into a host cell genome.
The small T intron is an intron, that is used in some plasmid vectors, in order to induce gene expression in mammalian cells.
Function
The function of this intron in the vectors is unknown, but it is theorized that it might be involved in splicing or translation efficiency.12
Vectors such as pME18s contain it.
References
Huang MT, Gorman CM (1990). "The simian virus 40 small-t intron, present in many common expression vectors, leads to aberrant splicing". Mol Cell Biol. 10 (4): 1805–10. doi:10.1128/mcb.10.4.1805. PMC 362290. PMID 1690852. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC362290 ↩
Hunt AG, Mogen BD, Chu NM, Chua NH (1991). "The SV40 small t intron is accurately and efficiently spliced in tobacco cells". Plant Mol Biol. 16 (3): 375–9. doi:10.1007/bf00023989. PMID 1654158. S2CID 9326989. /wiki/Doi_(identifier) ↩