Using pBABE plasmids for regular transfection - (Apr/10/2014 )

Im confused regarding the promoter on the pBABE puro plasmids. Are they usable in regular transfection into mammalian cells with electroporation etc? Do they only work in retroviral transfections. Are the LTR repeats the promoter or the pBABE itself?

Thanks

IIRC they should work for normal transfection.  I don't know for certain but I suspect the LTRs are for the recombination events required to make the retroviral genome.