Molecular Farming in Plants

Abstract

The commonly used term ‘molecular farming’ describes the large‐scale production of valuable proteins in transgenic plants, including antibodies, vaccines, other pharmaceuticals and industrial proteins. Compared to traditionally used systems such as microbial cultures, plants offer many advantages with respect to economy, quality and safety. Especially attractive is the possibility to power protein production using natural sunlight and atmospheric carbon dioxide. Furthermore, transient expression systems offer the possibility to rapidly produce personalised pharmaceuticals otherwise impossible. Several production systems including algae, mosses, tissue‐ and cell cultures have been reported, enabling contained protein production. Combining these cell‐based production systems with newly developed photo‐bioreactors promises powerful solutions for cost‐efficient and safe manufacturing of valuable proteins. However, constraints concerning protein yield and public acceptance must be overcome before the plant's full potential can be exploited. Key Concepts: Plant‐based production of proteins can be done in a wide range of systems including different species, tissues and organelles, for each protein the best combination must be identified. Light‐driven production of bioactive‐proteins offers an eco‐friendly and sustainable alternative to conventional production systems. Transient expression of proteins offers the possibility to cost efficiently produce customised pharmaceutical proteins.

Plant molecular farming: production of metallic nanoparticles and therapeutic proteins using green factories

“…125 It was shown that the amount secured should be higher than 1% of soluble protein to make it commercially interesting. 212 In contrast to animal and microbial expression systems, transgenic plants have several advantages in terms of safety, cost and ease of production for fabricating therapeutic biomolecules. However, there are quite a few challenges, such as public acceptance, transgene escape, biosecurity, and public reception among others, but it is anticipated that in not too distant future, molecular farming will see substantial accomplishments with the precise and technical inquiries; significant concerns are summarized in Figure 5.…”

The production of recombinant cationic a-helical antimicrobial peptides in plant cells induces the formation of protein bodies derived from the endoplasmic reticulum

“…Genetically modified (GM) plants with moderate resistance to pathogenic bacteria and fungi have been developed by expressing AMPs either constitutively or induced by pathogens (reviewed by Marcos et al, 2008;Montesinos, 2007). Many different recombinant proteins have been expressed in plants (Fischer et al, 2004;Hoja and Sonnewald, 2013;Twyman et al, 2003), and the applications envisaged for CECMEL11 peptides suggest that plant-based expression would be preferable, to develop plants either that are disease resistant or that express AMPs for medical and industrial applications. Large-scale chemical synthesis of peptides above around six amino acids is only economically viable for applications of very high added value.…”