The Production of Heterologous Proteins Using the Baculovirus Expression Vector System in Insect Cells

The baculovirus expression vector system (BEVS) is one of the powerful heterologous protein expression systems using insect cells. As a result this has become a hot issue in the fleld of biotechnology. The advantage of the BEVS is that the large-scale production of heterologous proteins, which undergo posttranslational modification in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), can be accomplished. Altrough posttranslational modification of heterologous proteins in insect cells is more similar to mammalian cells than yeast, it is not always identical. Therefore, aggregation and degradation can sometimes occur in the ER. To produce a high level of bioactive heterologous proteins using BEVS in insect cells, the prerequisite is to completely understand the posttranslational conditions that determine how newly synthesized polypeptides are folded and assembling with ER chaperones in the ER lumen. Here, we provide information on current BEVS problems and the possibility of successful heterologous protein production from mammalian cells.