title: Production of biologically active Atlantic salmon interferon in transgenic potato and rice plants.
abstract: Interferons (IFNs) are cytokines that induce an antiviral state in vertebrate cells. The Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) IFN gene (SasaIFN-alpha1) was introduced in potato and rice plants by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation to produce a biologically active fish IFN in these plants. The transgenes and their transcripts were detected by PCR and Northern blot analysis. Western blot analysis showed the existence of SasaIFN-alpha1in transgenic plants. The antiviral activity of the SasaIFN-alpha1 protein expressed in these plants was determined by the survival rates of pre-treated cultured fish cells against pancreatic necrosis virus infection. The survival rate of cells pre-treated with transgenic samples was up to 95% but was reduced to 30-47% when cells were pre-treated with non-transgenic samples. These results demonstrated an antiviral effect of the SasaIFN-alpha1 protein derived from transgenic plants. Plant-derived IFNs may be suitable as components of functional feeds because such IFNs are free of animal pathogens and can be produced at a lower cost compared with those from transgenic mammalian and bacterial cells. This is the first study describing the production of a biologically active fish IFN using transgenic plants.
authors.affiliation: Plant Molecular Technology Research Group, Research Institute of Genome-based Biofactory, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 2-17-1-1, Tsukisamuhigashi Toyohira-ku, Sapporo 062-8517, Japan.
authors.forename: Noriho
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fukuzawa
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tabayashi
authors.forename: Yasushi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Okinaka
authors.forename: Ryo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Furusawa
authors.forename: Kazuyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Furuta
authors.forename: Uiko
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kagaya
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsumura
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D007372:Interferons / Q000378:metabolism; D012275:Oryza / Q000502:physiology*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000378:metabolism*; D015202:Protein Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D020317:Salmo salar / Q000502:physiology*; D011198:Solanum tuberosum / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D016898:Interferon-alpha; D010940:Plant Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D007372:Interferons