Human papillomavirus-like particles (HPV VLPs) have shown considerable promise as a parenteral vaccine for the prevention of cervical cancer and its precursor lesions. Parenteral vaccines are expensive to produce and deliver, however, and therefore are not optimal for use in resource-poor settings, where most cervical HPV disease occurs. Transgenic plants expressing recombinant vaccine immunoge...

Tocopherol cyclase, encoded by the gene SUCROSE EXPORT DEFECTIVE1, catalyses the second step in the synthesis of the antioxidant tocopherol. Depletion of SXD1 activity in maize and potato leaves leads to tocopherol deficiency and a 'sugar export block' phenotype that comprises massive starch accumulation and obstruction of plasmodesmata in paraveinal tissue by callose. We grew two transgenic St...

Improvement of nutritive value of crop plants, in particular the amino acid composition, has been a major long-term goal of plant breeding programs. Toward this end, we reported earlier the cloning of the seed albumin gene AmA1 from Amaranthus hypochondriacus. The AmA1 protein is nonallergenic in nature and is rich in all essential amino acids, and the composition corresponds well with the Worl...

Snakin-1 (SN1), a cysteine-rich peptide with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity in vitro, was evaluated for its ability to confer resistance to pathogens in transgenic potatoes. Genetic variants of this gene were cloned from wild and cultivated Solanum species. Nucleotide sequences revealed highly evolutionary conservation with 91-98% identity values. Potato plants (S. tuberosum subsp. tuber...

In plants infected with Potato leafroll virus (PLRV), or other luteoviruses, infection is very largely confined to cells in the vascular system. Even in tobacco plants transformed with PLRV full-length cDNA, in which all mesophyll cells should synthesize infectious PLRV RNA transcripts, only a minority of the mesophyll cells accumulate detectable amounts of virus. We have explored this phenomen...

Potato MADS box 1 (POTM1) is a member of the SQUAMOSA-like family of plant MADS box genes isolated from an early stage tuber cDNA library. The RNA of POTM1 is most abundant in vegetative meristems of potato (Solanum tuberosum), accumulating specifically in the tunica and corpus layers of the meristem, the procambium, the lamina of new leaves, and newly formed axillary meristems. Transgenic line...

Transgenic plants that express foreign proteins with industrial or pharmaceutical value represent an economical alternative to fermentation-based production systems. Specific vaccines have been produced in plants as a result of the transient or stable expression of foreign genes. It has recently been shown that genes encoding antigens of bacterial and viral pathogens can be expressed in plants ...

SWEET (Sugars Will Eventually be Exported Transporter) proteins, a novel family of sugar transporters, mediate the diffusion of sugars across cell membranes and acts as key players in sucrose phloem loading. Manipulation of SWEET genes in plants leads to various effects on resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses due to disruption of sugar efflux and changes in sugar distribution. In this stud...