Abstract
Members of adenoviral family represent middle-sized viruses composed of a complex protein capsid and a linear double-stranded DNA of molecular weight 20–22 mD or 35–36 kb coding for about 30 virion and virus-specific proteins. The ends of adenoviral genome have inverted terminal repeats 100–200 nucleotide long, each of which contains identical replication origins. These sites represent the cis-acting element indispensable in any virus vector construction. The second cis-element of adenoviral genome absolutely necessary in the capsid type of viral vectors is the package signal located in the left noncodig part of the DNA molecule 200–300 nucleotides long between the terminal repeat and the El cistron (Doerfler, 1983/1984; Ginsberg, 1984).