TRANSGENIC BOMBYX MORI AS A BIOTECHNOLOGICAL PLATFORM TO PRODUCE RECOMBINANT PROTEINS

In recent years, the scientific community has been focused on developing feasible platforms to obtain recombinant proteins in order to meet the high demand. There is a wide range of bioreactors that are currently used for this purpose, as bacteria, yeast, mammalian, plant or insect cells. In this regard, decades of dedicated research have shown that the insect biotechnology field is showing the most promising results. In this direction, Bombyx mori exhibits a great potential as a bioreactor to produce target proteins as it possesses various advantages. As expression host, Bombyx mori cells provide optimal post-translational modifications and display a remarkable ability to produce in a short period a great amount of proteins. In this review we discuss progress and we highlight the potential of using transgenic Bombyx mori as a biotechnological platform to obtain both target proteins and to produce enhanced silk fibres. The versatility and the feasibility of transgenic Bombyx mori have been outlined by studies that reported the successful production of human proteins like adiponectin, animal proteins, virus-derived proteins and enhanced silk threads.