Cytomegalovirus Intron A fragments

1. A recombinant expression construct for production of a recombinant polypeptide encoded by a selected coding sequence, said expression construct comprising:

(a) the coding sequence;

(b) control elements that are operably linked to said coding sequence, wherein said control elements comprise

(i) a human cytomegalovirus (hCMV) Intron A fragment, wherein said fragment is obtained by an internal deletion of at least 10 nucleotides of the full-length Intron A sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 and the fragment comprises: the contiguous sequence of nucleotides at positions 1-51 of SEQ ID NO: 1, linked to the contiguous sequence of nucleotides at positions 741-820 of SEQ ID NO: 1, wherein when said fragment is present in the expression construct, the fragment directs the transcription of the operably linked coding sequence present in the construct to levels equal to or greater than those levels achieved by an expression construct that includes the intact, full-length Intron A sequence; and

(ii) a promoter selected from the group consisting of an SV40 early promoter, a CMV promoter, a mouse mammary tumor virus LTR promoter, an adenovirus major late promoter, an RSV promoter, a SRα promoter, and a herpes simplex virus promoter, whereby said coding sequence can be transcribed and translated in a host cell to produce said recombinant polypeptide.

2. An isolated host cell comprising the recombinant expression construct of claim 1 .

3. A method of producing a recombinant polypeptide comprising:

(a) providing a host cell comprising a recombinant expression construct for production of a recombinant polypeptide encoded by a selected coding sequence, said expression construct comprising:

(i) the coding sequence;

(ii) control elements that are operably linked to said coding sequence, wherein said control elements comprise (1) a human cytomegalovirus (hCMV) Intron A fragment, wherein said fragment is obtained by an internal deletion of at least 10 nucleotides of the full-length Intron A sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 and the fragment comprises: the contiguous sequence of nucleotides at positions 1-51 of SEQ ID NO: 1, linked to the contiguous sequence of nucleotides at positions 741-820 of SEQ ID NO: 1, wherein when said fragment is present in the expression construct, the fragment directs the transcription of the operably linked coding sequence present in the construct to levels equal to or greater than those levels achieved by an expression construct that includes the intact, full-length Intron A sequence; and (2) a promoter; and

(b) culturing said cell under conditions whereby said coding sequence of said recombinant expression construct is expressed, thereby producing said recombinant polypeptide.

4. A method of producing a recombinant polypeptide comprising:

(a) introducing an expression construct for production of a recombinant polypeptide encoded by a selected coding sequence into a host cell, wherein the expression construct comprises:

(i) the coding sequence;

(ii) control elements that are operably linked to said coding sequence, wherein said control elements comprise (1) a human cytomegalovirus (hCMV) Intron A fragment, wherein said fragment is obtained by an internal deletion of at least 10 nucleotides of the full-length Intron A sequence of SEQ ID NO:1 and the fragment comprises: the contiguous sequence of nucleotides at positions 1-51 of SEQ ID NO: 1, linked to the contiguous sequence of nucleotides at positions 741-820 of SEQ ID NO: 1, wherein when said fragment is present in the expression construct, the fragment directs the transcription of the operably linked coding sequence present in the construct to levels equal to or greater than those levels achieved by an expression construct that includes the intact, full-length Intron A sequence; and (2) a promoter; and

(b) culturing the host cell under conditions whereby said coding sequence of said recombinant expression construct is expressed, thereby producing said recombinant polypeptide.