Production of antibodies and antibody fragments in plants

Our current knowledge allows the generation of transgenic plants that efficiently produce heterologous proteins from plant, bacterial, fungal or animal origin. Among all types of recombinant proteins, antibodies are particularly attractive because of their ability to specifically recognize and bind virtually any type of antigen. Plants show several advantages as a large-scale antibody production system: they can be grown easily and inexpensively in large quantities that can be harvested, stored and processed by using existing infrastructures. Isolation and purification of plant-made antibodies, if necessary, allow fundamental, industrial, and therapeutical applications. In the past, we and others have successfully generated antibody-producing plants. The maximal accumulation levels of antibodies and antibody fragments that we observed are 1-5% of the extracted proteins. Currently, several biotechnological companies grow field crops to produce antibodies for ex planta applications on an industrial scale.