Production of SAC Proteins in a Baculovirus-Based Heterologous Gene Expression System

The overproduction of certain protein components of the Spindle Assembly Checkpoint (SAC) such as human BUB3, CDH1, and CDC20 either in isolation or associated with other proteins in prokaryotic heterologue gene expression systems remains a technical challenge. Recent advances in virus engineering methods and the development of genetically modified insect cells have been exploited to overproduce these SAC proteins as natively folded, functional molecules. One widely used baculovirus-based expression system is flashBac, which exhibits several advantages over other insect cells-based expression systems such as the straightforward production of recombinant baculoviruses through homologous recombination and the positive selection of recombinant clones.