Transformation of Marshmallow Plant for Anti-HIV Microbicide Production

For centuries, marshmallow plant (Althaea officinalis L.) has been used as a medicinal and ornamental plant. Valuable secondary products of metabolism have previously been identified in Agrobacterium rhizogenes-generated transgenic ‘hairy' roots in this plant. Thus, a study was conducted by George's University of London scientist Pascal Drake and colleagues to develop transgenic roots in the plant using the bacterium A. rhizogenes. In addition to wild-type lines, roots expressing the anti-human immunodeficiency virus microbicide candidate, cyanovirin-N (CV-N), were produced. Wild-type and CV-N root lines were transferred to liquid culture and increased in mass by 49 and 19%, respectively, over a week culture time.

The concentration of CV-N present in the root tissue was 2.4 μg/g fresh weight in the second setup, with an average secretion rate into the growth medium of 0.02 μg/ml/24 h. Therefore, the transgenic roots from marshmallow plant may be used not only as a source of therapeutic secondary metabolites, but also as an expression system for the production of recombinant pharmaceuticals.

Read the abstract at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11248-013-9730-7.