Recombinant baculovirus occlusion bodies in vaccines and biological insecticides

摘要

The present invention is directed to recombinant baculoviruses which encode fusion polyhedrin proteins capable of forming occlusion bodies containing foreign peptides. The recombinant baculoviruses of the invention are formed by insertion into or replacement of regions of the polyhedrin gene that are not essential for occlusion body formation, with foreign DNA fragments by recombinant DNA techniques. The recombinant occlusion bodies produced in accordance with the present invention have uses in vaccine formulations, immunoassays, immobilized enzyme reactions, as biological insecticides, and as expression vectors.