Translational repression using BIV Tat peptide–TAR RNA interaction in mammalian cells

We developed a strategy to create novel genetically encoded switches based on translational repression. We illustrated its efficacy by incorporating two copies of an RNA hairpin in the 5'-untranslated region (UTR) of a target mRNA and demonstrating 7-fold translational repression upon expression of a ligand - the BIV Tat peptide.