Beyond Starch: Towards a Scalable Potato Platform for Molecular Farming

Area of Science:

• Plant biotechnology
• Molecular farming
• Biomanufacturing

Background:

• Potatoes were early hosts for recombinant protein production, offering storage and logistical benefits.
• Challenges like low expression, high downstream processing costs, and scalability hindered potato's widespread adoption.
• Recent technological advancements present opportunities to re-evaluate potato as a molecular farming platform.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the historical context and technical/economic factors influencing potato's role in molecular farming.
• To assess recent advancements that could overcome previous limitations.
• To explore the potential of a 'bioreactor potato' for next-generation biomanufacturing.

Main Methods:

• Review of technical and economic factors affecting potato molecular farming.
• Analysis of recent advances in expression systems, pathway engineering, and downstream processing.
• Evaluation of alternative potato germplasm and genome editing technologies.

Main Results:

• Refined expression cassettes, ER/secretory pathway engineering, and enzyme-assisted DSP show promise.
• Genome editing and multigene stacking offer improved control and expression.
• Diploid potatoes and alternative Solanum germplasm provide new chassis options.

Conclusions:

• Engineered diploid potatoes ('bioreactor potatoes') can overcome previous limitations.
• These advancements position potato as a viable platform for specific biomanufacturing niches.
• Potato can complement existing hosts in next-generation biomanufacturing.