title: Expression of the major mugwort pollen allergen Art v 1 in tobacco plants and cell cultures: problems and perspectives for allergen production in plants.
abstract: An economic and cheap production of large amounts of recombinant allergenic proteins might become a prerequisite for the common use of microarray-based diagnostic allergy assays which allow a component-specific diagnosis. A molecular pharming strategy was applied to express the major allergen of Artemisia vulgaris pollen, Art v 1, in tobacco plants and tobacco cell cultures. The original Art v 1 with its endogenous signal peptide which directs Art v 1 to the secretory pathway, was expressed in transiently transformed tobacco leaves but was lost in stable transformed tobacco plants during the alternation of generations. Using a light-regulated promoter and "hiding" the recombinant Art v 1 in the ER succeeded in expression of Art v 1 over three generations of tobacco plants and in cell cultures generated from stable transformed plants. However, the amounts of the recombinant allergen were sufficient for analysis but not high enough to allow an economic production. Although molecular pharming has been shown to work well for the production of non-plant therapeutic proteins, it might be less efficient for closely related plant proteins.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Plant Biophysics and Biochemistry, Department of Molecular Biology, University of Salzburg, Billrothstr. 11, 5020 Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Siegert
authors.forename: Heidi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pertl-Obermeyer
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gadermaier
authors.forename: Fatima
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Obermeyer
mesh_terms: D052179:Antigens, Plant / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D019306:Artemisia / Q000235:genetics*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D006801:Humans; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011058:Pollen / Q000276:immunology*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D052179:Antigens, Plant; C102724:Art v 1 protein, mugwort; D010940:Plant Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins