A set of baculovirus transfer vectors for screening of affinity tags and parallel expression strategies

We report a set of baculovirus transfer vectors for parallel expression of proteins in fusion with a panel of affinity tags including GST, protein A, thioredoxin, CBP, and FLAG. This suite includes vectors to generate recombinant baculovirus by homologous recombination in insect cells or using the Bac-to-Bac technology. An application of the vector suite approach to the vitamin D receptor (VDR), a protein mainly expressed as inclusion bodies in Escherichia coli, is presented. We found that expression in fusion with GST and protein A provided an efficient compromise of excellent purification with acceptable yields and costs.