Title:Expression and Characterisation of Recombinant Molecules in Transgenic Soybean
Volume: 19
Issue: 31
Author(s): Nicolau B. da Cunha, Andre M. Murad, Giovanni R. Vianna, Cintia Coelho and Elibio L. Rech
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Molecular farming, Transgenic soybean, Glycine max, Plant seed storage proteins, Protein storage vacuoles.
Abstract: Seeds are organs specialised in accumulating proteins, and they may provide a potential economically viable platform for the
large-scale production and storage of many molecules for pharmaceutical and other productive sectors. Soybean [Glycine max (L.)
Merrill] has a high seed protein content and represents an excellent source of abundant and cheap biomass. Under greenhouse conditions
and a daily photoperiod of 23 h of light, the soybean plant’s vegetative growth can be significantly extended by inducing more than a tenfold
increase in seed production when compared with plants cultivated under field conditions. Some factors involved in the production of
different recombinant proteins in soybean seeds are discussed in this review. These include transgenic system, regulatory sequences and
the use of Mass Spectrometry as a new tool for molecular characterisation of seed produced recombinant proteins. The important intrinsic
characteristics and possibility of genetically engineering soybean seeds, using current advances in recombinant DNA technology including
metabolic engineering and synthetic biology, should form the foundation for large-scale and more precise genome modification, making
this crop an important candidate as bioreactor for production of recombinant molecules.
