There are many advantages of using the baculovirus expression system:
- high expression levels
- easy and fast scale-up to volume production
- limitless size of the expressed protein
- suitable for cytotoxic protein expression
- supports post-translational modifications
- simultaneous expression of multiple genes
- safety
Proteins expressed using the BEV system are correctly folded and biologically
active. Because the cells die during the manufacturing process,
the BEV system is able to produce proteins from genes of unknown function.
The polyhedrin and p10 genes used have strong promoters which result
in the synthesis of large quantities of target protein in infected
cells. The polyhedrin promoter can be used to control the expression
of virtually any gene.Other virus promoters, although less active,
are also useful for foreign gene expression. In addition, insect
cells are amenable to large scale volume production in fermenter
systems.
The BEV system involves engineering a recombinant virus, rather
than an entire cell line for each gene product. This results
in far faster development times - proteins can be produced in
a matter of weeks rather than months. It is far more rapid and
less costly to engineer a baculovirus for protein production
than any other advanced production systems based on transformed
mammalian cells or transgenic animals.
| Suitable for large proteins |
The BEV system can be used to express proteins of large sizes. The
baculovirus genome is remarkably variable in size (88 - 200
kbp). The virus can thus accommodate large amounts of foreign
DNA without affecting its normal replication.
| Tolerant of cytotoxic proteins |
The expression of the very late virus gene promoters occurs in cells after
the maturation of infectious virus parrticles. This means that
if the target protein expressed is cytotoxic, it will leave
the virus replication unaffected.
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