h/m GYS1 shRNA Lentivirus

Background

GYS1 encodes glycogen synthase 1, the muscle isoform of the enzyme that catalyzes the rate-limiting step of glycogen synthesis by adding glucose units to the growing glycogen chain. Its activity is tightly controlled by reversible phosphorylation and by allosteric activation through glucose-6-phosphate, integrating signals from insulin and energy status. Glycogen synthase activity is central to glucose storage and energy metabolism in skeletal muscle and other tissues. Altered GYS1 function is linked to glycogen storage disorders and metabolic disease, and glycogen metabolism is increasingly studied in the context of cancer cell adaptation, making GYS1 relevant to metabolic and cancer research.

Product Description & Applications

The h/m GYS1 shRNA Lentivirus delivers a validated short hairpin RNA targeting human and mouse GYS1 for stable RNA interference. The shRNA is expressed from a U6 promoter in a third-generation, self-inactivating lentiviral backbone, with a co-expressed fluorescent reporter (GFP or RFP, optionally with luciferase) and optional blasticidin or puromycin selection. Particles are ultra-purified and concentrated by PEG precipitation and sucrose gradient centrifugation and efficiently transduce difficult-to-transfect cells, including primary and thawed cells. The shRNA is validated for at least 70% knockdown using a fluorescence-based assay.

A shRNA set option supplies a mix of two validated shRNAs plus a scrambled control for loss-of-function studies of glycogen metabolism and cell biology.

About This Product

This validated shRNA lentivirus targeting GYS1 (NCBI Accession: NM_002103.5) delivers a 19–20 bp shRNA from a third-generation, self-inactivating lentiviral backbone. Expression is driven from a U6 Pol III promoter, with a constitutively expressed fluorescent reporter (GFP, GFP/Luc, RFP, RFP/Luc) and antibiotic selection marker (Blasticidin, Puromycin) co-expressed from the same vector. VSV-G pseudotyping enables broad cell tropism, including primary, suspension, and cryopreserved cell types.

Knockdown is validated using a proprietary bicistronic fluorescence assay in which the target mRNA is co-expressed fused to RFP alongside the shRNA-GFP construct. At least 70% reduction in RFP signal in GFP-positive cells confirms on-target activity — a more direct functional readout than transcript-level qPCR. Polyclonal stable lines can be generated by antibiotic selection within 10 days, preserving parental cell heterogeneity compared to single-clone CRISPR approaches.