Expression of the human immunodeficiency virus gag gene in insect cells.

Regions of the gag-pol gene of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the causative agent of AIDS, have been cloned into the polyhedrin gene of the baculovirus Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus. When these recombinant viruses were used to infect insect cells, the cells produced gag-related proteins which could be immunoprecipitated with serum from AIDS patients. The major proteins produced by Acgag1, which contained the entire gag gene and a small portion of the pol gene, had molecular weights of 55,000 and 40,000 Da. Acgag2, which contained a larger portion of the pol gene in addition to the gag coding sequences, produced a major protein of 24,000 Da and only minor amounts of the 55,000- and 40,000-Da proteins. The implications of these results with respect to proteolytic processing of HIV gag proteins as well as the potential diagnostic use of this system are discussed.