Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego) are working on an unusual candidate for COVID-19 vaccine: a plant virus. Led by UC San Diego nanoengineering professors Nicole Steinmetz and Jon Pokorski, the team's goal is to use plants to create a stable, easy to manufacture vaccine that can be shipped around the globe.
As plants are exposed to light, the protein complex photosystem II (PSII) energizes electrons to help power photosynthesis. But heat or intense light can damage a key subunit, known as D1, and stop PSII's work until the plant makes and inserts a new D1 into the complex. Chloroplasts have their own DNA, including a gene for D1, and most biologists assumed the protein had to be made there.
Nature Biotechnology reports genetically engineered tobacco plants that glow brightly during its entire lifetime. The findings of the study conducted by researchers from Planta and the Russian Academy of Sciences could be used in the development of imaging tools for plants.
Agricultural economist Dr. Matin Qaim of the University of Göttingen in Germany recommends that regulatory reforms and a more science-based public debate towards new plant breeding technologies are necessary to maximize the potential of this new science that can greatly contribute to sustainable agricultural development and food security, especially in developing countries.
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