Tobacco biomass yield

The two major leafy crops used for the production of recombinant proteins are tobacco and alfalfa, both of which have high leaf biomass yields in part because they can be cropped several times every year. The main limitation of such crops is that the harvested leaves tend to have a restricted shelf life. The recombinant proteins exist in an aqueous environment and are therefore relatively unstable, which can reduce product yields [16]. For proteins that must be extracted and purified, the leaves need to be dried or frozen for transport, or processed immediately after harvest at the production site. This adds considerably to the processing costs. 

Once the expression cassette has been optimized, highly diluted agrobacterial suspension carrying the cDNA of the TMV-based vector is used for large-scale agroinfiltration of whole tobacco plants. The biomass can be harvested 7-10 days later and used for isolation of the recombinant protein of interest. In comparison with other systems, this protocol is extremely fast, provides high yields, and has the potential for unlimited scalability. In addition, our... 

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