ABSTRACT
The exploitation of the most popular insect viruses for heterologous protein expression (the baculoviruses) is an example of such a system. Much smaller insect viruses, the Densoviruses, have also been manipulated as expression vectors. The virus was first studied extensively as a method of biological crop control and was originally cultured, as were many insect viruses, by passage from insect to insect of the polyhedrin inclusion bodies (PIBs) from which the virus name derives. The focus of genetic manipulation in the field of biological control has been to improve this key parameter. A system using the p10 flanking sequences has been described and it is clear from gene knockout experiments that a number of other sites in the viral genome could be engineered for the insertion of foreign genes driven by a variety of promoters.
