Neutralizing antibodies against rotavirus produced in transgenically labelled purple tomatoes

摘要

Edible fruits are inexpensive biofactories for human health?￠????promoting molecules that can be ingested as crude extracts or partially purified formulations. We show here the production of a model human antibody for passive protection against the enteric pathogen rotavirus in transgenically labelled tomato fruits. Transgenic tomato plants expressing a recombinant human immunoglobulin A (hIgA_2A1) selected against the VP8* peptide of rotavirus SA11 strain were obtained. The amount of hIgA_2A1 protein reached 3.6?￠???????±?￠????0.8% of the total soluble protein in the fruit of the transformed plants. Minimally processed fruit?￠????derived products suitable for oral intake showed anti?￠????VP8* binding activity and strongly inhibited virus infection in an in vitro virus neutralization assay. In order to make tomatoes expressing hIgA_2A1 easily distinguishable from wild?￠????type tomatoes, lines expressing hIgA_2A1 transgenes were sexually crossed with a transgenic tomato line expressing the genes encoding Antirrhinum majus Rosea1 and Delila transcription factors, which confer purple colour to the fruit. Consequently, transgenically labelled purple tomato fruits expressing hIgA_2A1 have been developed. The resulting purple?￠????coloured extracts from these fruits contain high levels of recombinant anti?￠????rotavirus neutralizing human IgA in combination with increased amounts of health?￠????promoting anthocyanins.