Expression of Aβ-Fc Fusion Protein in Transgenic Potato

Abstract

Transgenic potato was generated to express recombinant 5 repeated β-amyloid (Aβ) peptides, potential antigens to be applied as a preventive accine for Alzheimer's disease using Agrobacterium mediated transformation. The Aβ peptides were fused to the human IgG Fc fragment enhancing protein and KDEL, which is the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention signal (5Aβ-FcK). The 5Aβ-FcK, was expressed under the control of the duplicated 35S promoter. PCR analysis confirmed the presence of the transgene in several transgenic potato lines. Southern blot analysis showed only a single gene copy number in transgenic line 22, whereas multiple gene copy numbers were shown for transgenic lines 31 and 44. Northern blot analysis showed that line 22 had stronger mRNA levels when compared to lines 31 and 44. Immunoblot analysis confirmed that the 5Aβ-FcK protein was expressed in the transgenic potato plant. These results indicate that 5Aβ fused to Fc can be expressed in potato plants.