Production and purification of VP2 protein of porcine parvovirus expressed in an insect-baculovirus cell system

Abstract

The porcine parvovirus (PPV) VP2 protein was expressed in an insect-baculovirus cell system and was purified using Ni-NTA affinity column chromatography. The recombinant 6-His-tagged VP2 protein with molecular mass (Mr) of about 64 kDa was detected by anti-his antibody and anti-PPV serum. Electron microscopy showed that the purified VP2 protein assembled into spherical particles with diameters ranging from 20 to 22 nm. The expressed VP2 was antigenically similar to the native capsid protein according to HA and a Western blotting assay performed with polyclonal antibodies collected from an outbreak of PPV in one farm. This study provides a foundation for the application of VP2 protein in the clinical diagnosis of PPV or in the vaccination against PPV in the future. © 2010 Zhou et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.