THE EXPRESSION OF RECOMBINANT PROTEINS IN CROP PLANTS

Antibodies, produced in and extracted from immunized animals, have enj oyed a wide range of uses as vaccines and therapeutic agents. Because of their high specificity and ability to bind tightly to antigens ther e are almost limitless potential applications for their exploitation, and therapeutic antibodies alone are worth $1000m a year. Two factors currently limit their use: concern over the use of laboratory animals, and the small scale of production possible by this route. However, it is now possible to produce and extract fully functional recombinant a ntibodies from plants, and new applications may be envisaged in human healthcare products and industrial scale purification processes. The p lant phenotype may also be modified to produce antibodies bringing abo ut resistance to plant pests and diseases, modification of metabolic p athways, or bioremediation of pollutants or polluted land.