“…The full-length Tat gene (Tat101), with or without stop codons, and Tat deletion mutants (Tat86, Tat72, Tat48 and Tat∆(49-59)) were cloned into the plasmid pEGFP-N1 (Clontech Inc.), resulting in Tat101, Tat101GFP, Tat86GFP, Tat72GFP, Tat48GFP and Tat∆GFP fusion gene, respectively. The fusion genes were then subcloned into pBIG2i as previously described [21]. The results were the following plasmid constructs; pBIG Tat101, pBIG Tat101GFP, pBIG Tat86GFP, pBIG Tat72GFP, pBIG Tat48GFP and pBIG Tat∆GFP.…”