Heterologous Protein Production in Transgenic Plants

Production of recombinant proteins in transgenic plants: Practical considerations

“…Transgenic plants are potentially one of the most economical systems for large-scale production of recombinant proteins for industrial and pharmaceutical uses (Austin et al, 1994;Krebbers et al, 1992;Pen et al, 1993a;Whitelam et al, 1993). Advantages of plant systems include the low cost of growing plants on large acreage; the ease in scale-up (increase of planted acreage); the availability of natural protein storage organs; and the established practices for their efficient harvesting, transporting, storing, and processing (Whitelam et al, 1993).…”

Processing of transgenic corn seed and its effect on the recovery of recombinant β-glucuronidase

“…Several agricultural crops such as tobacco, potato, corn, soybeans, alfalfa, and canola have been investigated as potential production systems of recombinant proteins with industrial and pharmaceutical applications. (Austin et al, 1994;Krebbers et al, 1992;Kusnadi et al, 1997a;Pen et al, 1993;Whitelam et al, 1993).…”

“…Plants have been used for years as a source of various proteins and enzymes, and recent advances in plant genetic engineering have demonstrated that plants can also be used as host to produce animal, human, viral, and bacterial proteins (Goddijn and Pen, 1995;Kusnadi et al, 1997b). Transgenic plants are inexpensive to grow, and the production of recombinant proteins can be easily scaled up by increasing the planted acreage (Whitelam et al, 1993). By using specific promoters, recombinant protein can be expressed and localized to natural protein storage organs (like tubers and seeds) that allow stable storage of recombinant protein for an extended period of time (Pen et al, 1993;Kusnadi et al, 1997b).…”

Molecular farming: strategies, expression systems and bio-safety considerations

“…Mass production of heterologous proteins and biopharmaceuticals in plants can be achieved at much lower costs and contamination or co-purification of human or animal pathogens is also avoided (Evangelista et al 1988;Verwoerd et al 1995;Giddings et al 2000;Whitelam 2000;Ziegler et al 2000). Additionally, plants possess natural protein storage organs and their seeds are easily distributed, allowing local production (Whitelam et al 1993;Whitelam 2000).…”

“…Human growth hormone was the first pharmaceutically important protein that was expressed in transgenic tobacco (Barta et al 1986). Since then transgenic plants expressing vaccines, therapeutics, industrial enzymes, antibodies, nutraceuticals, and other pharmaceutical proteins have been produced (Krebbers et al 1992;Whitelam et al 1993;Ma et al 1994;Herbers & Sonnewald 1999;Ma et al 2005).…”