Heterologous expression of full-length capsid protein of porcine circovirus 2 in Escherichia coli and its potential use for detection of antibodies.

A capsid protein of porcine circovirus 2 (PCV 2) serves as a diagnostic antigen for the detection of PCV 2-associated disease known as a postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS). In this report, a bacterial expression system was developed for the expression and purification of the full-length PCV 2 capsid (Cap) protein from a codon-optimized cap gene. Replacement of rare arginine codons located at the 5' end of the cap reading frame with codons optimal for E.