The production of heterologous proteins using the baculovirus expression vector system in insect cells

Abstract

Among the wide range of methods and expression hosts available for the heterologous production of recombinant proteins, insect cells are ideal for the production of complex proteins requiring extensive posttranslational modification. This review article provides an overview of the available insect-cell expression systems and their properties, focusing on the widely-used Baculovirus Expression Vector System (BEVS). We discuss the different strategies used to generate recombinant baculovirus vectors and show how advanced techniques for virus titer determination can accelerate the production of recombinant proteins. The stable transfection of insect cells is an alternative to BEVS which has recently been augmented with recombinase-mediated cassette exchange for site-specific gene integration. We consider the advantages and limitations of these techniques for the production of recombinant proteins in insect cells and compare them to other expression platforms.