Expression and Localization of the HCV Structural Protein E1 in Insect Cells
Abstract: In this work,the truncated Hepatitis C virus(HCV) structural protein E1 fused with GST was expressed in E.coli.The fusion protein was used as an antigen to immunize rabbit to produce the antibody for detection.To express HCV E1 in insect cells,the recombinant baculovirus(vAcHCVE1) containing the HCV full length E1 gene was constructed by Bac-to-Bac recombinant baculovirus expression system.It was proved to be able to produce HCV structural protein E1 in insect cell Sf9.The expression protein was detected by Western blot analysis.The size of the product was 30 kDa,which was bigger than the predicted size of 20 kDa,implicating post-translational modification such as glycosylation.By using confocal microscope,it was observed that the E1 protein was localized in the cytoplasm and cellular membrane 48h after inflection.