AUTHOR=Kopertekh Lilya , Reichardt Sven 

TITLE=Effect of the At-CDC27a gene on Nicotiana benthamiana phenotype and accumulation of recombinant proteins

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2022.1042446

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2022.1042446

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>In this study the anaphase promoting complex subunit CDC27a from <italic>Arabidopsis thaliana</italic> was introduced in the genome of <italic>Nicotiana benthamiana</italic> by <italic>Agrobacterium tumefaciens</italic>. The presence of the <italic>At-CDC27a</italic> gene facilitates plant biomass production. Compared to wild type <italic>N. benthamiana</italic> the leaf mass fraction of the best performing transgenic line At-CDC27a-29 was increased up to 154%. The positive effect of the At-CDC27a expression on leaf biomass accumulation was accompanied by an enlarged total leaf area. Furthermore, the ectopic expression of the At-CDC27a also affected cellular conditions for the production of foreign proteins delivered by the TRBO vector. In comparison to the non-transgenic control, the protein accumulation in the At-CDC27a-29 plant host increased up to 146% for GFP and up to 181% for scFv-TM43-E10. Collectively, the modified <italic>N. benthamian</italic>a plants developed in this study might be useful to improve the yield of recombinant proteins per biomass unit in closed facilities.</p>