Cloning and kinetics of expression of Brucella abortus heat shock proteins by baculovirus recombinants

In an effort to develop genetically engineered Brucella abortus (BA) vaccines, the genes encoding heat shock proteins (HSPs) GroEL, GroES, and HtrA were cloned and expressed in the BAC-TO-BAC Baculovirus System, and the kinetics of protein expression were analyzed using various insect cell lines in suspension cultures, different cell densities in suspension cultures, multiplicities of infection and recombinant virus replication times. Trichoplusia ni cells expressed only BA HtrA, but Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf9) cells expressed all three recombinant proteins. The best GroEL expression was achieved by infecting 2x10(6) Sf9 cells/ml with an MOI 10 of recombinant virus and harvesting the cells after 96 h of virus replication. GroES and HtrA were best expressed when infecting 2x10(6) Sf9 cells/ml with an MOI 1 of recombinant viruses and harvesting the cells after 120 h of virus replications. Under these conditions BA recombinant HSPs were expressed as follows: GroEL at 16% of the total cellular proteins (105 mu g/ml concentration); GroES 2% (15.25 mu g/ml); and HtrA 8% (84.48 mu g/ml). This is the first report of cloning and expression of BA genes in the baculovirus system. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.