Design of Bacterial Vector Systems for the Production of Recombinant Proteins in Escherichia coli

More than twenty years have passed since the approval of the first recombinant DNA product for therapeutic use (recombinant human insulin, 1982). However, the biotechnology industry is still facing a shortage of manufacturing capacity due to the increasing demand of therapeutic proteins. This demand has prompted the search for a growing number of biological production systems but, nevertheless, the Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli remains one of the most attractive production hosts. This review highlights the most important features and developments of plasmid vector design, emphasizing the different reported strategies for improving the expression and secretion of heterologous proteins using the cellular machinery of E. coli.