Foreign peptides displayed on the major coat protein of filamentous bacteriophage

The genome of filamentous bacteriophage can be engineered to display foreign peptides on the surface of the major coat protein. This display system offers an effective approach to researching the immunological recognition of protein. Studies show that this system has several advantages: 1) the specificity of the immune response; 2) the ability to recruit helper T cells; 3) needs no external adjuvants; 4) the structural mimicry of peptide epitopes. These suggest that this technology could be developed into a simple and inexpensive means to produce new biological reagents and vaccines. The development of this technology and the main property of filamentous bacteriophage are introduced in this paper. Some novel results about foreign peptides display using the main coat protein of filamentous bacteriophage are also summarized.