Preferential expression and immunogenicity of HIV-1 Tat fusion protein expressed in tomato plant

Issue Date

10-2010

Abstract

HIV-1 Tat plays a major role in viral replication and is essential for AIDS development making it an ideal vaccine target providing that both humoral and cellular immune responses are induced. Plant-based antigen production, due to its cheaper cost, appears ideal for vaccine production. In this study, we created a plant-optimized tat and mutant (Cys30Ala/Lys41Ala) tat (mtat) gene and ligated each into a pBI121 expression vector with a stop codon and a gusA gene positioned immediately downstream. The vector construct was bombarded into tomato leaf calli and allowed to develop. We thus generated recombinant tomato plants preferentially expressing a Tat-GUS fusion protein over a Tat-only protein. In addition, plants bombarded with either tat or mtat genes showed no phenotypic difference and produced 2-4 μg Tat-GUS fusion protein per milligram soluble plant protein. Furthermore, tomato extracts intradermally inoculated into mice were found to induce a humoral and, most importantly, cellular immunity. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Source or Periodical Title

Transgenic Research

ISSN

0962-8819

Volume

19

Issue

5

Page

889-895

Document Type

Article

Physical Description

illustrations, graphs

Language

English

Subject

AIDS, Antibody response, Cellular immune response, HIV-1, Tat, Transgenic tomato

Identifier

doi:10.1007/s11248-009-9358-9.

Digital Copy

yes

Link to Full Text

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