What are the advantages of the insect protein expression system?

One advantage is the large capacity to carry gene fragments and carry out large scale protein expression. Expression levels up to 500 mg/L have been observed using this expression system. Another advantage is the ability of these systems to perform complex post-translational modifications such as glycosylation and acetylation. This allows for production of recombinant proteins that are immunologically, antigenically, and functionally similar to the native mammalian protein. Insect protein expression systems also offer ease of scale-up, and can be readily adapted to high-density suspension culture for large-scale expression. These systems have the ability to co-infect insect cells with multiple recombinant baculoviruses. This allows for the generation of different protein subunits, and thus facilitates the creation of multi-subunit protein complexes.