Food plant-delivered cholera toxin B subunit for vaccination and immunotolerization

Developments in recombinant DNA technology have enabled molecular biologists to introduce a variety of novel genes into plant species for specific purposes. From crop improvement to vaccine antigen and antibody production, plants are attractive bioreactors for production of recombinant proteins, as their eukaryotic nature often permits appropriate post-translational modification of recombinant proteins to retain native biological activity. The autotrophic growth of plants requires only soil minerals, water, nitrogen, sunlight energy and carbon dioxide for the synthesis of constituent proteins. Furthermore, production of biologically active proteins in food plants provides the advantage of direct delivery through consumption of edible transformed plant tissues. The production of cholera toxin B subunit in potato plants and applications for prevention of infectious and autoimmune disease are explained in this contribution.