Patent ID: 6979556

Claim:
A polynucleotide molecule encoding an intact antibody, said polynucleotide molecule comprising (1) a first promoter and a first cistron forming a first promoter-cistron pair and (2) a second promoter and a second cistron forming a second promoter-cistron pair, wherein the first cistron of said first promoter-cistron pair comprises a first translational initiation region (TIR-L) operably linked to a nucleic acid sequence encoding an immunoglobulin light chain and the second cistron of said second promoter-cistron pair comprises a second translational initiation region (TIR-H) operably linked to a nucleic acid sequence encoding an immunoglobulin heavy chain, wherein upon expression of said polynucleotide in a prokaryotic host cell, secreted light and heavy chains are folded and assembled to form a biologically active intact antibody.