Effect of Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) Infection on Expression and Purification of Therapeutic Vaccine Proteins in Transgenic Plants

초록

Plant molecular biofarming has been increasingly studied in recent decades. Many kinds ofrecombinant immunotherapeutic proteins have been produced in transgenic tobacco plants. However, tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) can damage tobacco plants and cause pathogenic symptoms,which affects plant biomass production. Cigarette sap solution has been used to infect TMV duringtobacco cultivation. In this study, we obtained TMV-infected transgenic plants expressing a prostatespecificantigen (PSA) fused to an IgG Fc with KDEL ER retention motif (PSA-IgG FcK). Thetypical TMV-associated symptoms appeared and increased on plant leaves 5 days after infection. mRNA expression levels and the presence of TMV were confirmed by RT-PCR and transmissionelectron microscopy analyses. The expression level and purity of the target protein were notsignificantly different between noninfected and infected transgenic plants. TMV was not found inthe purified protein samples from infected plants. Our study showed that TMV pathogen-infectedplant biomass can be harvested and processed to obtain therapeutic vaccine proteins.

키워드