Silkworm as a Host of Baculovirus Expression

Abstract

While the Baculovirus Expression Vector System (BEVS) mainly uses insect cell lines, such as Sf9 cells, the robust high expression system using silkworm has also been developed. We have further improved technologies for enhancement of virus recombination, reduction of proteolytic degradation and aggregation, and more reliable promoters. These developments made it possible to achieve high and soluble expression of recombinant proteins. We review here such technology developments, advantage of using silkworm and some example applications. There are areas where this technology can be further improved as implicated in the end.