Plants as Expression Systems for Recombinant Proteins
Fanuel Kawaka *
Department of Pure and Applied Sciences, Technical University of Mombasa, P.O.Box 90420, Mombasa, Kenya.
Alex Ngetich
Institute for Biotechnology Research, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Plants provide a wide range of important biological molecules that are needed in research, medicine and industry. Currently, there is a growing interest in the use of plants as expression systems for the production of recombinant proteins using different host cells. The synthesis of proteins in plants is safe, economical and can be scaled up compared to the microbial and mammalian expression systems. Despite the fact that plant systems are widely recognized for producing recombinant proteins, there are certain improvements that should be addressed before the system is considered commercially viable. Such challenges include the need to identify promoters that would provide comparable yield to other systems, enhance protein stability and recovery. In this review, we describe the production of some plant based proteins, challenges and advantages of plants systems.
Keywords: Microbial, mammalian, expression systems, promoters