Construction of a cysteine protease deficient Bombyx mori multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus bacmid and its application to improve expression of a fusion protein

The bacmid system of BmMNPV with cysteine protease gene deletion (CPD-BmMNPV bacmid) was constructed using the lambda recombination system. The protease activities of Bombyx mori cells and silkworm larvae infected with this CPD-BmMNPV bacmid were reduced by 94% and 85%, respectively. By using this system, a GFPuv-β1,3-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase 2 (GFPuv-β3GnT2) fusion protein was successfully expressed in silkworm larvae with less protein degradation and without larvae liquefaction; β3GnT activity improved 30%. This CPD-BmMNPV bacmid system provides rapid protein production in silkworms and can be used for the production of recombinant eukaryotic proteins without proteolytic degradation.