CAT protein stability

[Michael Holloway]

In article <1993May4.085620.25688 at gserv1.dl.ac.uk> vioque at cica.es (Agustin Vioque) writes:
>I am using CAT as a reporter in the study of a bacterial promoter. Are there
>any data available about the stability of the CAT protein and its half life
>in the cell? 

I can't be sure, but I seem to recall that the original Gorman papers had some
data on that.  The "common wisdom" is that the CAT protein has a long half
life and seems to be relatively insensitive to in vivo protease activity.
The mRNA is the converse.  It's not supposed to be the reporter of choice for
RNase protection assays.  Luciferase is the converse of the CAT situation.
The protein has a short half life.

Wait a moment, this paper may be of use.  It describes optimizing 
electroporation of mammalian cells but the shows how resistant CAT is 
relative to luciferase.  DNA 7:557-562 (1982).

Mike