US
US researchers have genetically engineered tobacco plants that can produce medical and industrial proteins in the field. This successful move outdoors from a laboratory setting could provide the opportunity to grow in bulk, thus making the whole concept economically feasible.
Industrial enzymes and other proteins are currently made in large fermenting reactors. Making them in plants could reduce production costs by three times, suggest the researchers from Cornell University and the University of Illinois.
They say the market for biologically derived proteins is forecast to reach US$300 billion in the near future.
“We show that the plant still is able to function perfectly normally in the field [while producing non-native proteins]. That was really the breakthrough,” says Cornell’s Beth Ahner.
The genetic engineering was achieved by delivering DNA with instructions for making a desired protein into the chloroplasts of plants cells. The plants containing chloroplasts that adopt this DNA are then cultivated.