Duckweed biomanufacturing: longstanding promise, decade-long lag, recent renaissance

Molecular farming has become a mature, cost-competitive route to recombinant protein, vaccine, and phytochemical production. Nicotiana benthamiana dominates the landscape, while aquatic plants of the family Lemnaceae (duckweeds) continue to be the perennial 'next big thing' that never truly arrives. These tiny floating plants offer the fastest biomass doubling time of any angiosperm, up to 45% crude protein, human-compatible N-glycosylation, and the unique ability to grow on wastewater. Monoclonal antibodies and edible vaccines have been expressed at research scale for 2 decades. Still, there is no duckweed-derived biomolecule manufactured commercially. In this opinion article, we examine the reasons for this paradox and ask whether explosive progress in the last few years finally turns duckweed from perennial hype into a genuine industrial platform.