NEWS FROM
PHYSIOLOGIA PLANTARUM
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Published monthly on behalf of SPPS by Wiley-Blackwell.
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Comforting proteins
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A dehydrin protein from Rhododendron plays a key role in freezing tolerance due to protection from cellular dehydration caused by extracellular freezing. Rajeev Arora and co-workers from Iowa State University have shown that purified RcDhn5-encoded acidic SK2 type dehydrin can protect enzyme activity against dehydration in in viro assays. When the gene was constitutively expressed in Arabidopsis, the transgenic plants exhibited increased freezing tolerance withour prior cold acclimation. With cold acclimation, however, the effect was less pronounced. This is apparently due to dilution of the Rhododendron dehydrin by less effective native dehydrins.
Read full article free: Peng et al. (December 2008) Physiologia Plantarum 134: 583-597
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NEWS IN BRIEF
FROM OTHER JOURNALS
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Aphids thrive on biofuels
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Source: Landis et al. (23 December 2008) PNAS 105: 20552-20557
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Pattern-creating microtubules
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Source: Hamant et al (12 December 2008) Science 322: 1650-1655
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Scandinavian research institute:
Plastid AS, University of Stavanger, Norway
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Plastid is a spin-off from University of Stavanger that produces proteins in transgenic plants. From www.plastid.no
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Most of the research in natural sciences at the University of Stavanger is related to chemistry, and this is no coincidence as the rich Norwegian oil- and gasfields in the North Sea are not far away. But some room has been spared for plant sciences and last year this resulted in a biotech spin-off company, Plastid AS. The company expresses proteins in chloroplasts of transgenic plants that have been subject to plastid transformation. The aim is to produce known proteins for research, aqua cultures, feed producers and the pharmaceutical industry as well as to design novel proteins for specific uses.
Plastid was founded 20th June 2007 by CSO Professor Simon Geir Møller from the University's Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, from where the company also operates its research activities. The principal scientist was Head of the Department before the company launched, and he has spent most of his carrier working with transformation systems at Rockefeller University in New York and with chloroplasts at University of Leicester in the UK. And Plastid is acutally founded on these two research fields.
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Plastid is based on a proprietary chloroplast transformation technique. From www.plastid.no
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The corner stone in Plastid is a proprietary technique for chloroplast transformation that offer several advantages to conventional methods for plant transformation. The major advantage of this technology is that plastid DNA is maternally inherited, which prevents gene flow through pollen and thus facilitates the coexistence of genetically modified, conventional and organic agriculture. Another advantage of chloroplast transformation is their huge number (up to 100) per cell and the high number of genomes (~100) per organelle. This allows for as many as 10,000 protein encoding genes per cell and consequently a very high level of production.
Transformation of chloroplasts is achieved by biolistic bombardment of cells with microscopic gold particles that have been coated with the genes of interest. One of the crucial steps in transformation is to select transformed cells and regenerate plants from them, and this process has been greatly improved by a patented method. It does not rely on antibiotics, which often has a negative effect on the whole cell culture, and this is one reason that selection can be achieved in only 3 weeks. Three to four month after transformation full grown transgenic plants, e.g. tobacco, are established from which high levels of protein can be extracted.
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The staff at Plastid. CEO Rosalind Russell is in the middle and CSO Simon G. Møller is to the right. From www.plastid.no
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Plastid has produced transgenic plants expressing several proteins, e.g. antigens to the malaria parasite, Plasmodium, that can be used for vaccines. Scientists at the company have also expressed a kinase that is a target for drugs against stomach cancer. This protein is used by pharmaceutical companies in drug design but previously it has been very difficult to produce in other expression systems. Plastid is currently in discussion with several industrial companies and research institutions about production of tailor-made proteins.
Simon Geir Møller is the main shareholder of Plastid with a 45% ownership and together with Nam-Hai Chua from Rockefeller University they own half the company. The other half of the shares is owned by the local institutional investors IRIS Forskninsinvest and Kunnskapsparken Utvikling AS.
You can find more information about Plastid at their official homepage.
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