We have previously constructed and expressed the entire extracellular domains of human Dsg1 and Dsg3 using the baculovirus system (Ding et al., 1997 (link); Ding et al., 1999 (link); Flores et al., 2012 (link)). The murine Dsg3 DNA plasmid pEVmod-murineDsg3-His (kind gift of Dr. Masayuki Amagai, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan) was used to generate the mDsg3 recombinant baculovirus using the BacPAK Baculovirus Expression System (Clontech, Mountain View, CA). Soluble ectodomains of hDsg1, hDsg3, and mDsg3 were produced in the baculovirus system and purified by nickel chromatography as described (Flores et al., 2012 (link)).