A Critical Review of The Concept of Transgenic Plants

Abiri et al.
Transgenic Plants
A Critical Review of the Concept of Transgenic Plants:

Insights into Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and
Molecular Farming
Rambod Abiri1,2, Alireza Valdiani1*, Mahmood

Maziah1,3,4*, Noor Azmi Shaharuddin1*, Mahbod
Sahebi4, Zetty Norhana Balia Yusof1, Narges Atabaki5,
Daryush Talei6
1Department
of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biotechnology and

Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400
UPM Serdang, Selangor DE, Malaysia.
2Young Researchers and Elite Club of IAU, Kermanshah,
Iran.
3Institute of Bioscience, 5Institute of Tropical Agriculture,
Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor
DE, Malaysia.
4Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor DE, Malaysia
5IAU of Tehran Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran
6Medicinal Plant Research Center, Shahed University,
Tehran, 3319118651, Iran.
*Corresponding authors:
Alireza Valdiani [email protected]
Mahmood Maziah [email protected]
Noor Azmi Shaharuddin [email protected]
Abstract
Using transgenic plants for the production of high-value
recombinant proteins for industrial and clinical applications
has become a promising alternative to using conventional
bioproduction systems, such as bacteria, yeast, and
cultured insect and animal cells. This novel system offers
several advantages over conventional systems in terms of
safety, scale, cost-effectiveness, and the ease of
distribution and storage. Currently, plant systems are being
utilised as recombinant bio-factories for the expression of
various proteins, including potential vaccines and
pharmaceuticals, through employing several adaptations of
recombinant processes and utilizing the most suitable tools
and strategies. The level of protein expression is a critical
factor in plant molecular farming, and this level fluctuates
according to the plant species and the organs involved.
The production of recombinant native and engineered
proteins is a complicated procedure that requires an interand multi-disciplinary effort involving a wide variety of
scientific and technological disciplines, ranging from basic
biotechnology, biochemistry, and cell biology to advanced
production systems. This review considers important plant
resources, affecting factors, and the recombinant-protein
expression techniques relevant to the plant molecular
farming process.
Curr. Issues Mol. Biol. 18: 21-42.
Introduction
Currently, critical challenges in soil and water resources, as
well as climate change, have resulted in the human
population outpacing the available agricultural products.
Thus, scientists are attempting to find various ways to
increase the quality and quantity of the food,
pharmaceutical and the industrial products of plants within
limited arable spaces (De La Fuente et al., 2013).
Phenotypic selection was the first action taken by humans
to establish plant breeding as a reliable classical approach
to this problem. Indeed, the history of plant breeding can
be traced to the dawn of civilization,10,000 years ago,
when early societies began to shift from being huntergatherers to being members of agrarian communities
(Tilman et al., 2002).
Gregor Mendel reached the first milestone in modern
plant breeding. The results of his plant-breeding
investigations led to the discovery of genetic functions
through focusing on DNA as the basis of trait heredity
(Acquaah, 2009). Although, conventional plant breeding
has been used to overcome the lack of sufficient food or
feed (Lopes et al., 2012), the success of this method is
largely dependent on the breeder's experience and on
phenotypic selection; consequently, inaccurate predictions
can be made and low-efficiency breeding can occur
(Mewett et al., 2007). Moreover, other limiting factors, such
as the method being time consuming, the difficulty in
finding the most related parents of a new generation of
plants, selecting the best crossing method according to the
plant traits desired, the high number of back-crosses
required and the difficulties in increasing the expression of
the favoured traits are the main concerns in plant breeding
(De La Fuente et al., 2013).
Genetic modification (GM) is a new method that
researchers have been using to increase the yield of plant
products by improving certain traits, including the
responses of herbs to abiotic and biotic stresses (Tait,
1999; Ashraf et al., 2008). Background genetic
transformation is the most significant application of GM; in
this process various methods are utilized to introduce
desirable traits into the host genome while concentrating
on preserving the individual characteristics of the plant
(Ziemienowicz, 2013). The most important plants that have
been successfully subjected to gene transformation
programs are industrial plants, cereal crops, legumes, root
plants, vegetables, turf grasses, tropic plants, woody
species, medicinal and ornamental plants, as well as fruit
plants (Wang, 2006a; Wang, 2006b). These plants and
their related species have been presented in Table 1. In
gene transformation processes, the gene(s) of interest of
donor plants, bacteria or viruses are transferred to host
horizonpress.com/cimb
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Abiri et al.
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Table 1. Examples of genetically transformed plant species using various transformation methods.
Model
Plants
Root
plants
Turf
grasses
Tropic
plants
Woody
species
Medicinal
plants
Nuts and
fruits
Vegetable
plants
Plants
References
Carrot (Daucus
carota)
Cassava (Manihot
esclenta)
Potato (Solanum
tuberosum)
Sweet potato
(Ipomoea batatas)
Perennial ryegrass
(Lolium perenne)
Bermudagrass
(Cynodon spp.)
Switchgrass
(Panicum virgatum)
Banana (Musa spp.)
(Zhang and Huang,

2010)
(Xu et al., 2012)
Pineapple (Ananas
comosus)
Sugarcane
(Saccharum spp.)
Citrus spp., coffee
(Coffea spp.)
Papaya (Carica
papaya)
Eucalyptus, Pine
(Pinus radiate)
Cork oak (Quercus
suber)
Poplar (Populus
spp.)
Rubber tree (Hevea
brasiliensis)
Ginseng (Panax
ginseng
Hemp (Cannabis
sativa)
Blueberry
(Vaccinium
corymbosum)
Walnut (Juglans
spp.)
Strawberry
(Fragaria x
ananassa)
Apple (Malus x
domestica)
Tomato
(Lycopersicum
esculentum)
Lettuce (Lectuca
sativa)
Model
Plants
Ornamental
plants
Plants
References
Carnation (Dianthus caryophylus)
(Burana et al., 2014)
Orchids (Cymbidium spp.,

Oncidium, Phalaenopsis)
Rose (Rosa hybrida)
(Fischer et al., 2012)
Indian Mustard (Brassica juncea)
(Shu-Hong et al.,
2015)
(Condliffe et al.,
2003)
(Kamenarova et al.,
2005)
(Sankararao and
Rohini., 1999)
(Wang, 2006a)
Canola (Brasicca napus)
(Wang, 2006a)
(Wang, 2006a)
Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum)
(Ashraf et al., 2008)
Alfalfa (Medicago sativa)
(Wang, 2006a)
(Ziemienowicz, 2013)
Beans (Phaseolus spp.)
(Wang, 2006a)
Soybean (Glycine max)
Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan)
Peanut (Arachis hypogaea)
(Wang, 2006a)
(Dunwell, 2009)
Peas (Pisum sativum)
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum)
Rice (Oryza sativa)
(Dunwell, 2009)
(Wang et al., 2005)
Maize (Zea mays)
(Dunwell, 2009)
Rye (Secale cereal)
(Dunwell, 2009)
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor)
(Dunwell, 2009)
(Dunwell, 2009)
Wheat (Triticum aestivum)
(Dunwell, 2009)
Barley (Hordeum vulgare)
Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis
thaliana)
(Wang et al., 2005)
Tobacco (Nicotiana tobaccum, N.

benthamiana)
(Park and Cheong.,

2002)
(Goo et al., 2015)
Petunia (Petunia hybrida)
Industrial
plants
(Wang, 2006a)
Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)
Legume
plants
(Wang, 2006b)
(Wang, 2006b)
(Wang et al., 2005)
(Wang, 2006a)
Cereal crop
Model plants
34
plants using various methods, such as Agrobacterium

mediation, particle bombardment (biolistics), the
microprojectile gun method, electroporation, a siliconcarbide fibre-based technique, polyethylene glycol (PEG)mediated protoplast fusion, and liposome-mediated gene
transfer, allowing the investigation of their effects (Rivera et
al., 2012).
To date, transgenic plants have been engineered for
the following purposes: to increase their tolerance of abiotic
and biotic stresses (Lau et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2005), to
improve their nutrient uptake (Sahebi et al., 2014), to

reduce the effects of harmful agrochemicals and increase
crop yields (Ziemienowicz, 2013), to allow phosphorus
absorption and reduce the use of fertilizer (Hirsch and
Sussman, 1999), to enhance grain production and the
growth rate under the condition of low-iron availability
(Takahashi et al., 2001) and to increase the aluminium
tolerance of papaya and tobacco (De la Fuente et al.,
1997). Some of the most significant genes transformed in
the four plants of tobacco, rice, potato and Arabidopsis
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Abiri et al.
Transgenic Plants
have been listed in Figure 1. By introducing Bt (Bacillus

thuringiensis) toxin genes into rice, tomato, maize, tobacco,
potato, cotton and other crop species, their insect
resistance has been significantly increased (Singh et al.,
2010).
There is evidence showing that the first application of
herbs for medicinal purposes occurred during the period
when Neanderthals lived (approximately 130,000 years
ago), whereas more reliable evidence indicated that plant
products have been used for therapeutic purposes as early
as when the major human civilizations began, when the
Egyptians collected at least 700 different medicinal plants
in approximately 1600 BC. Consistent with this trend, the
Romans used willow bark (Salix alba L.) to treat fevers
(Ahmad, 2014; Kleiner, 1995). The functions of the
ingredients of medicinal plants have been recently
identified, allowing their use as prescription drugs (Mewett
et al., 2007). Modern biotechnology is expanding the
application of herbs in medicine well beyond the usual
borders. Because plants can be the sources of medicinal
proteins, including a blood-component substitute
(Magnuson et al., 1998), mammalian antibodies (Fischer et
al., 1999), and vaccine subunits (Walmsley and Arntzen,
2000), plant molecular farming can play a constructive role
in the development of suitable transgenic plants. Using this
technology, scientists have succeeded in introducing genes
into host plants that induced them to produce
pharmaceuticals (Torrent et al., 2009). In contrast to those
who focus on other aspects of transgenic plants, plant
molecular farming (PMF) researchers do not focus on

conventional products, such as food, feed or fibre
applications, but on producing industrial and
pharmaceutical products (Sourrouille et al., 2009; Torrent et
al., 2009). The first plant-based pharmaceutical protein was
produced by Barta et al., 1986 during their investigations of
producing human growth hormone in tobacco (Nicotiana
tabacum). Since then, several other plant species, such as
banana and potato, have been tested for the production of
medicinal proteins (Schillberg et al., 2003). Although the
notion of producing human proteins and antibodies in
plants was initially met with great scepticism, nevertheless,
crops offer a unique combination of advantages as well as
interesting features compared with those of the traditional
production systems. Generally, during the last several
decades, plants have been widely investigated as
unconventional systems for the production of
pharmaceutical proteins.
Plant molecular farming compared with conventional
bioproduction systems
Conventional molecular farming began in 1920 with the
extraction of insulin from animal tissues by Fredrick
Banting, as described by Dynkevich et al., 2013, but the
drawbacks of this approach most likely led to the
establishment new molecular farming methods through
considering novel sources. New methods arose according
to the molecular sources (e.g., plant cells, transgenic plant
cells, virus-infected plants, animal cells, transgenic animals
!
Figure 1. Groups various genes were transformed to model plants.
!23
Abiri et al.
Transgenic Plants
and microbial cells). Accordingly, plant molecular farming is

one of the outcomes of this process, and the major source
in this field is the transgenic plant cell (da Cunha et al.,
2014).
Compared with other transgenic products obtained
from transgenic bacteria, fungi, and animals, which are the
most common models for recombinant-protein production,
plant-based therapeutics are produced with the lowest
cost, leading to an economic justification for their use
(Hkkinen et al., 2014). The availability of personnel with
experience and expertise in planting, harvesting, and
processing plant material are some of the other benefits of
recombinant-protein production using molecular farming of
higher plants. In addition, the dissimilarity of the pathogenic
factors of plants and humans decreases the risk of
microbial interactions that could negatively affect the quality
of the final products. Technically, the stability of
recombinant proteins within plants stressed by
environmental factors is greater than that of recombinant
proteins produced in other hosts. Furthermore, higher
plants typically produce recombinant proteins with the
correct folding, activity and glycosylation (Schillberg et al.,
2005; Yano et al., 2010). Another beneficial characteristic
of these systems is that recombinant plants can be stored
at room temperature. In contrast, the storage temperature
for plant viruses, bacteria and yeasts is -20 C. The storage
condition for cultured mammalian cells is even more
stringent because they must be maintained in liquid
nitrogen (Faye et al., 2005). Among plant species, plants
with watery tissues, such as tomato plants, are more
suitable for molecular farming than are dry-tissue plants,

such as cereals. This phenomenon could be related to the
ease of extraction of squashy tissues (Horn et al., 2004).
Despite all of the advantages of using higher plants, there
are limits to the products than can be obtained using plant
molecular farming, such as the unknown mechanisms that
cause certain post-translational disorders in plant cells. The
challenging issue of how to fine-tune the systems that are
essential for the preservation of the structural integrity of
the nascent recombinant proteins and their activities in
their new cellular environments are still debated within the
field of plant molecular farming (Walsh and Jefferis, 2006).
The advantages and disadvantages of plant molecular
farming compared with using other molecular farming
systems are presented in Figure 2.
Factors affecting the expression of recombinant
proteins in different hosts
According to the classification of final plant molecular
farming products by Horn et al. (2004), proteins are
clustered as parental pharmaceuticals, therapeutical
intermediates, monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), industrial
proteins, and antigens for use as edible vaccines (Figure
3). As green bioreactors, plants have various advantages,
such as the capacity to accomplish eukaryotic posttranslational modifications that are necessary for biological
activities, such as disulphide bridging and glycosylation, in
many different mammalian proteins (Ma et al., 2003). The
genetic transformation procedures employed are governed
by various vital factors, such as the plant genotype, the
Figure 2. Comparison between various hosts in molecular farming.

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Abiri et al.
Transgenic Plants
type of explant, the plasmid vector, the agrobacterial strain,

and the composition of the culture medium (Kavitah et al.,
2010; Sood et al., 2011). These factors play important roles
in the transformation process that depends upon the plant
species involved. Therefore, efficient plant molecular
farming researchers tend to develop new transformation
methods and novel construct designs, to incorporate welldefined transgenes and to search for more effective
methods of introducing multiple genes into plants (Bregitzer
and Brown, 2013; Karimi et al., 2013).
Types of explants
As mentioned above, the type of explant involved is one of
the most vital factors for genetic transformation. For
instance, the use of different sources of plant cells or
tissues (e.g., seed, root, shoot, leaf, and shoot and root
apical meristems) leads to variable results for callus
induction, plant regeneration, and the efficacy of genetic
transformation. In this regard, to produce a mass of calli,
numerous protocols have been established for different
plant-tissue culturing systems. Although these protocols
are well-established, difficulties in callus induction in some
plants, such as Indica rice varieties, are still experienced
(Ikeuchi et al., 2013).
Types of PGRs and plant regeneration

The complicated procedure of plant tissue culture
prompted the development of somatic embryogenesis (SE)
methods, in which PGRs play an essential role. Two
mainstream PGRs that have been used for plant tissue
culturing are auxins and cytokinins. Members of the subgroups of each family are involved in different metabolic
pathways that affect plant physiology. For examples, auxins
cause the production of undifferentiated cells called callus
cells. Apparently, PGRs induced methylation of DNA,
whereas cytokinins affect root formation in tissue cultures.
The auxins generally used for the induction of different
callus tissues are 2,4-D (2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid),
IAA (Indole-3-acetic acid), NAA (1-Naphthaleneacetic acid),
Dicamba, Picloram and 2,4,5-T (2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid) (Yokoya et al., 2014). In contrast, cytokinins
are the best candidates for inducing the production of roots
and of plant regeneration via calli. The main function of
cytokinins appears to involve the synthesis of proteins
necessary for the formation and functionality of the mitotic
spindle apparatus (George et al., 2008). BAP (6Benzylaminopurine), Kinetin, Zeatin and TDZ (Thidiazuron)
are the most important cytokinins that display regenerative
activity in cultured plant tissues (Alam et al., 2010). Despite
the undeniable effects of PGRs on cultured plant tissues,
other essential factors, such as sugars, vitamins, salt
concentrations, the type of medium and certain chemicals,
!
Figure 3. Examples of plant molecular farming products in different types of plants.
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Abiri et al.
Transgenic Plants
have been found to be a key factors in somatic embryogenesis (Enrquez-Obregn et al., 1999; Kavitah et al.,
2010; Murashige and Skoog, 1962).
Achieving the effective gene transformation systems in
molecular farming largely depends on the efficiency of
tissue culture methods. These methods are mainly affected
by the plant source, such as calli, root and shoot. In several
plants, the lack of effective regeneration system is the most
important limiting factor preventing the successful gene
transfer technologies.
Plant vectors
Scientists have many devices that allow them to achieve
their goals of producing transgenic plants. In addition to
various methods, such as the gene gun and biolistic
techniques, natural bacterial vectors of plants, such as
Agrobacterium tumefaciens, have been introduced as
efficient tools, particularly in the case of cereals.
Agrobacterium tumefaciens has the ability to transfer a
portion of its DNA or so-called transferred DNA (T-DNA) to
the genome of a host plant (Sheng and Citovsky, 1996).
Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer to plant cells
includes five essential steps, as follows: a) induction of the
bacterial virulence system, b) generation of a T-DNA
complex, c) transfer of the T-DNA from Agrobacterium to
the nucleus of the host cell, d) integration of the T-DNA into
the plant genome, and e) the expression of T-DNA genes
(Gelvin, 2012; Ziemienowicz et al., 2012). To date,
Agrobacterium-based transformation methods have proven
to useful approaches to genetically modify plants of various
levels, including model plants such as the barrel clover
(Medicago truncatula) Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana)
and tobacco (Nicotiana tobaccum, N. benthamiana);
cereals, such as maize (Zea mays), rye (Secale cereale),
barley (Hordeum vulgare), wheat (Triticum aestivum), rice
(Oryza sativa) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor); legume
plants, such as chickpea (Cicer arietinum); bean
(Phaseolus spp.); pea (Pisum sativum); peanut (Arachis
hypogaea), pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan); alfalfa (Medicago
sativa); soybean (Glycine max); clover (Trifolium spp.);
industrial plants, such as cotton (Gossypium hirsutum),
canola (Brasicca napus), sunflower (Helianthus annuus),
Indian mustard (Brassica juncea), Camelina sativa and
Brassica oleracea; vegetable, such as tomato
(Lycopersicum esculentum), eggplant (Solanum
melongena), cucumber (Cucumis sativus), lettuce (Lectuca
sativa), root plants; cassava (Manihot esclenta), carrot
(Daucus carota), sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) and
potato (Solanum tuberosum); ornamental plants, such as
carnation (Dianthus caryophylus), orchids (Cymbidium
spp., Oncidium, Phalaenopsis), chrysanthemum
(Dendranthema glandiflora hybrid), rose (Rosa hybrida)
and petunia (Petunia hybrida); tropical plants, such as
Citrus spp., banana (Musa spp.), sugarcane (Saccharum
spp.), coffee (Coffea spp.), pineapple (Ananas comosus),
papaya (Carica papaya); grasses, such as turf grasses,
perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne), bentgrasses (Argostis
spp.), bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.), tall fescue (Festuca
arundinacea), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum); woody
species, such as cork oak (Quercus suber), American elm
(Ulmus americana), poplar (Populus spp.), eucalyptus,
rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) and pine (Pinus radiate);
nuts and fruits, such as apple (Malus domestica),

American chestnut (Castanea dentata), strawberry
( F r a g a r i a a n a n a s s a ) , b l u e b e r r y ( Va c c i n i u m
corymbosum), walnut (Juglans spp.) and grapevine (Vitis
vinifera); and final, medicinal plants, such as hemp
(Cannabis sativa), ginseng (Panax ginseng) and the opium
poppy (Papaver somniferum) (Dunwell, 2009;
Ziemienowicz, 2013).
The major concerns that have arisen regarding
transgenic plants include the low efficacy of plant
regeneration during tissue culture, as well as production
bottlenecks, such as in the spatial and temporal aspects of
transgenic expression, target production, and the high-level
yield of recombinant products (Stoger et al., 2002a;
Streatfield, 2007). Considering that Agrobacterium is a
pathogen of dicotyledonous species, the efficacy of the
Agrobacterium-based genetic transformation of
monocotyledonous plants is still limited due to the low
integration rate. The above-mentioned difficulties prompted
researchers to create new approaches to increase
transformation efficiency. An Agrobacterium T-DNA derived
nano-complex has been introduced as a promising method
f o r i n c r e a s i n g t h e t r a n s f o r m a t i o n e ff i c i e n c y o f
monocotyledonous plants (Ziemienowicz et al., 2012). This
nano-complex was first transferred into triticale (Triticum
Secale) microspores. The most important nano-complexes
involve Agrobacterium T-DNA, virulence protein VirD2 and
single stranded DNA- and double stranded DNA-binding
RecA protein (Chugh et al., 2010).
Promoters
As the upstream elements of genes, promoters play an
eminent role in gene expression. Promoters contain sites
with core sequences to which RNA polymerase and
transcription factors bind. Although constitutive promoters,
such as the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S (CaMV35S) and
the maize ubiquitin-1promoter, have been utilized in dicots
and monocots, respectively, tissue-specific and inducible
promoters provide better control of gene expression (Ko et
al., 2005; Nguyen et al., 2004). Inducible promoters can be
prompted to induce gene expression within selected
spaces and at chosen times through the addition of the
appropriate chemicals. Reportedly, applying these specific
chemicals can inhibit the occurrence of the undesirable
effects of gene expression on different stages of plant
growth and development (Stger et al., 2000). Another
great advancement in the field of plant genetic
transformation was the identification of tissue-specific
promoters. These promoters control gene expression by
restricting it to specific tissues, which decreases the extent
of the diverse effects of transformation on the growth and
development on the host plant (Stahl et al., 2002).
However, the efficacy of gene expression in specific tissues
depends on the availability of a promoter that induces the
production of a sufficient level of protein (Ko et al., 2005;
Ko et al., 2003). The level of gene expression obtained
using a tissue-specific promoter is not always adequate for
a molecular farming process designed to generate
biotherapeutic proteins. This results could be due to the
limited number of existing promoters, their activity during
the regeneration process, and the unpredictability and
complexity of the effect of environmental factors, all of
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Abiri et al.
Transgenic Plants
which can cause unwanted and unexpected pleiotropic

effects (Du et al., 2003). Indeed, expressing the series of
genes necessary for the production of a full-size antibody
requires the application of specific promoters that control
the activity of each of these genes. In addition to the
problems regarding plant protein expression mentioned
above, the use of adverse promoters may cause
homology-based gene silencing (De Neve et al., 1999; Ko
et al., 2005). Applying both a constitutive promoter and an
inducible promoter is a feasible solution to the
aforementioned problems. For example, the combination of
the 35S promoter and the potato proteinase inhibitor II
(pin2) promoter has been used to control the expression of
the heavy- and light-chain antibody genes, respectively (Ko
et al., 2003).
Composition of RNA and DNA
The process for the production of a recombinant protein in
transgenic plants is similar to that of normal plants, in
which DNA is transcribed to produce mRNA and then,
through the harmonized activities of mRNA (messenger
RNA), tRNA (transfer RNAs) and rRNA (ribosomal
ribonucleic acid) mRNA is translated to yield a recombinant
protein (Gebauer and Hentze, 2004). The untranslated
regions of mRNA (the 5 and 3 untranslated regions) have
direct effects on the transcriptional and translational
processes via the activity of regulator- protein complexes
(Amrolia et al., 1995; Costanzo and Fox, 1995). The core
sequence of an untranslated region (UTR) of a gene may
function as a gene-expression repressor when it binds
translationinitiation factors. As a consequence of this
activity, the translation of the gene product may be downregulated (Curie and McCormick, 1997). A motif within the
5 UTR sequence of a gene can cause the specific
induction of the transcription of its mRNA (Dickey et al.,
1992). In parallel, the 5-untranslated region of tobacco
mosaic virus (Mitsuhara et al., 1996) and that of alfalfa
mosaic virus (AMV) RNA3 have been shown to enhance
the translation efficiency of a -glucuronidase (GUS)
transgene and stabilize its mRNA (Datla et al., 1993),
which was also reported for the luciferase (Gallie and
Kobayashi, 1994) and -phaseolin (Oliver et al., 1993)
genes. The cytoplasmic polyadenylation element (CPE)
motif at the 3 end of transcripts reportedly exhibited a
regulatory function in mRNA translational events. In this
regard, the above-described motif can stimulate protein
translation by hastening the occurrence of polyadenylation
(Kervestin and Amrani, 2004). Additionally, transgenic
plants containing the untranslated leader sequence of AMV
had higher levels of attacin and a recombinant lytic protein
than did the plants that did not contain this sequence (Ko et
al., 2000).
Thus, modifying the structural stability of mRNA and
controlling RNA polyadenylation via 5 and 3 untranslated
sequences of mRNAs, respectively, are useful
translational-based approaches to increasing the
production of recombinant proteins in transgenic plants.
Differences in the codon usage of the transgene and the
expression host will also affect the level of recombinantprotein expression. Codon optimization has been used to
improve the level of recombinant-protein expression in
living organisms by increasing the translational efficacy of

the transgene (Mechold et al., 2005).
Additionally, extensive modification of the coding
region and of certain molecular factors, such as
accommodating codon bias, altering the GC content,
eliminating cryptic splicing sites, putative polyadenylation
signals and mRNA-instability sequences and incorporating
5 and 3 regulatory sequences, are required to achieve the
high-level expression of foreign genes in plants (Streatfield
and Howard, 2003).
Many candidate plant species for the production of
recombinant proteins have been evaluated and developed
during the past 25 years based on their particular
advantages and disadvantages. These candidates from the
plant Kingdom includes those that can be applied in cell
cultures (carrot, tobacco, and rice), leafy crops (alfalfa,
tobacco, and lettuce), aquatic plants (Lemna minor) and
seed crops (canola, soybeans, corn, and rice) (Franconi et
al., 2010; Karg and Kallio, 2009).
Tobacco
One of the most suitable platforms typically used as a
green producer is tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). Despite
the application of tobacco in smoking, it has many unique
advantages over other plant species for the production of
pharmaceutically relevant proteins. Scientists believe that
the role of tobacco in recombinant-protein investigations is
similar to that of the white mouse in mammalian studies
over the last 20 years. As a leafy species, tobacco has
numerous advantages over other plants, which have
encouraged researchers to focus on this plant as an
undeniable alternative for recombinant protein expression.
This herb is capable of producing a biomass of up to 100
ton/ha. Moreover, a well-established system for
transforming tobacco that results in a high level of soluble
protein exists. The potential of utilizing various strategies
for the expression of proteins in a stable or transient
manner using this species, as well the possibility of using
chloroplast genome-based methods mediated via
Agrobacterium or viral induction are its other advantages
(Figure 2) (Karg and Kallio, 2009). Nevertheless, the high
concentrations of alkaloids and nicotine in some tobacco
varieties are disadvantageous to utilizing this plant for
molecular farming. These drawbacks have been
compensated for by breeding new cultivars such as
81V (Ma et al., 2003). The instability of the products of
tobacco is one of the disadvantages of this plant in
molecular farming. Alternatively, its products can be
immediately processed on farms; alternatively, the leaves
can be dried or frozen before transport to processing plants
(Kamenarova et al., 2005). Tobacco is not a feed or food
crop, which decreases the probability of its contamination
within the feed or food chains. In addition, tobacco can
produce a wide variety of therapeutic immune-modulatory
molecules, such as cytokines, vaccines and antibodies
(Tremblay et al., 2010). A full-length monoclonal antibody
(mAb) directed against a mouse catalytic IgG1(6D4) was
the first antibody produced in tobacco plants (Hiatt and
Pauly, 2006). Other antibodies that were generated using
tobacco plants include anti-PA (protective antigen) mAb,
anti-BoNT/A scFv (botulinum neurotoxin/antibody singlechain variable fragment) idiotype specific antibodies, anti-
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Abiri et al.
Transgenic Plants
Lewis Y mAb, H10 mAb, CO17-1A mAb, TheraCIM, B294

mAB, B303 mAb, 2F5 mAb, R12 mAb, CaroRX, and antiLPS scFv, as well as antibodies targeted against different
disease entities, such as anthrax (Hull et al., 2005),
botulism (Almquist et al., 2006), cancer (B-cell lymphoma)
(Young et al., 2009), (breast and colon) (Brodzik et al.,
2006), (broad spectrum) (Svanes et al., 2010), (colon) (Ko
et al., 2005), (skin) (Rodriguez-Oroz et al., 2005), as well
as hepatitis (Gleba et al., 2005), HIV (Human
immunodeficiency virus) (Ward et al., 2007), rabies (Girard
et al., 2006), S. mutans colonization (Ma et al., 1998), and
Salmonella (Makvandi-Nejad et al., 2005). Vaccines are
antigenic materials that are administered to produce
immunity to diseases. To date, various types of these
vaccines have been generated in tobacco and some of
them have been tested in mammals. The cysteine protease
Der p 1 (Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus allergen)
(Johnston et al., 2009; Lienard et al., 2007), Der p 2
(Lienard et al., 2007), protective antigen (Koya et al.,
2005), L1 major capsid protein (Lenzi et al., 2008), CTB
(cholera toxin B) (Jani et al., 2004), multi-epitope vaccine
(Soria-Guerra et al., 2009), VCA (viral capsid antigen) (Lee
et al., 2006), VP1 (viral protein-1) (Wu et al., 2007), VP21
(Huang et al., 2009), HSP-A (heat shock protein) (Brodzik
et al., 2006), UreB (urease subunit beta) (Gu and Glatz,
2007), HBsAg (Hepatitis B antigen) (Thanavala et al.,
1995), Hep C (Hepatitis C) core protein (Nanou and
Azzouz, 2009), HIV p24 capsid protein (Zhang et al.,
2002), HIV-Nef (human immunodeficiency virus- Negative
regulatory factor) (Marusic et al., 2007), F1-V, SARS-CoVS1protein (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus)
(Pogrebnyak et al., 2005), Tet-C (tetanus toxin Fragment C)
(Tregoning et al., 2005), GAD65 (Mr 65,000 isoform of
glutamic acid decarboxylase) (Ma et al., 2004), GAD67
(glutamic acid decarboxylase) (Ma et al., 1997), HSP-60
(Heat shock protein 60) (Tremblay et al., 2010), insulin
(Lee et al., 2006) and GLP-1 (Glucagon-like peptide-1)
(Brandsma et al., 2009) are some of the proteins that have
been expressed in tobacco, which target diseases/disease
entities such as allergy-dust mites, anthrax, cancer
(cervical), cholera, DPT (diphtheria), EpsteinBarr virus,
foot and mouth disease, Helicobacter pylori, hepatitis B/C,
HIV, plague, SARS, tetanus, Type 1 diabetes and Type 2
diabetes, respectively.
Cytokines, some of which are glycoproteins, are
members of a family of strong immunoregulators that are
produced by different types of cells. The function of these
small proteins is regulating the period and intensity of the
immune response by inhibiting or stimulating the activation,
proliferation, and differentiation of a variety of cells. This
procedure is accomplished through regulating the secretion
of Abs or other cytokines by target cells (Parkin and Cohen,
2001). Cytokines bind to cytokine receptors expressed on
the membrane of the responsive target cells (Thomson and
Lotze, 2003). Despite the availability of various commercial
recombinant cytokinins, considering the limitations of some
conventional bioproduction systems, such as low levels of
expression and the lack of glycosylation of E. coli-derived
recombinant cytokines, scientists are interested in
producing such recombinant proteins using tobacco. Due
to the low efficiency of E. coli production of a pleiotropic
regulatory cytokine, such as human IL-13,which protects
against several human diseases, including Type-1 diabetes

mellitus (T1DM), transgenic tobacco can be used as a
reliable system for the generation of high levels of human
IL-13 (Thompson and Debinski, 1999; Wang et al., 2008).
Transplastomic plants are novel alternatives to nuclear
transgenic plants, which are created by introducing the
recombinant DNA into the genome of chloroplasts rather
than the nuclear genome using gene-gun bombardment.
Some of the most important accessible products that have
been produced in tobacco chloroplasts are a tetanus-toxin
fragment, serum albumin, and human growth hormone.
However, plastids do not have the capacity to perform
glycosylation; thus, chloroplast cannot be used to produce
human glycoproteins (Ma et al., 2003).
The expression of tobacco systems
The availability of various tobacco expression systems with
their particular strengths is another advantage of this model
plant over other plant species. Nuclear transformation is
the appropriate method to achieve the long-term production
of glycoproteins, such as antibodies. Alternatively,
chloroplast-based expression systems allow the production
of large amounts of proteins that require certain types of
post-translational processing. Tobacco is amenable to
several different simultaneous applications and has the
potential to excel at each of them. When a product that
requires rapid modification, as in the case of the abovementioned idiotypic anti-cancer vaccine, transient
expression can be anticipated to yield the proper quantities
of the desired protein within a short period (Tremblay et al.,
2010). Using transient protein-expression systems,
researchers can produce considerable amounts of
recombinant protein during a short period, which is crucial
for the rapid response to a disease outbreak, as is the case
when a new influenza appears, e.g., during the A/H1N1
pandemic, as well as for patient-specific cancer treatments.
Nuclear transformation
Stable nuclear transformation involves the incorporation of
an exogenous gene into the nuclear genome of a plant,
which leads to the expression of the new heritable traits by
the next generation of transgenic plants. This
transformation method is commonly utilized for the
production and accumulation of a recombinant protein in
certain explants, such as the dry seeds of cereals (Horn et
al., 2004).
Agrobacterial infection and biolistic delivery are the two
mainstream methods used to transform an exogenous
gene into the nuclear genome of plants, including tobacco.
Agrobacterium transfers genes to dicots with great efficacy
and the Agrobacterial-infection method has been improved
to increase the efficacy of the genetic transformation of
certain monocotyledonous plants. The best example of the
success of the latter involves rice (Chan et al., 1993; Chen,
2008; Hiei et al., 1997).
Furthermore, decreased costs and simplification of the
production process are the results of gene delivery leading
to stable genetic integration, which frequently leads to the
production of recombinant proteins with the least external
input. The exogenous proteins produced due to nuclear
transformation can be directed to various secretory
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Abiri et al.
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organelles or other organelles for standard eukaryotic posttranslational modifications.

Although nuclear transformation systems are
commonly employed, the low level of production of the
resultant recombinant protein remains a matter of concern.
Among the many strategies to address this issue, the most
important are the use of 5 enhancer sequences to increase
translational productivity, the use of promoters with strong
tissue-specific constitutive activity, the use of a sub-cellular
localization signal (Benchabane et al., 2008), the use of 3
untranslated regions that were modified to increase
transcript stability and the optimization of the coding
sequence of the transgene using the typical tobacco
codons (Streatfield, 2007; Streatfield and Howard, 2003),
the addition of fusion partners that increase protein
stability/proteolysis resistance (Floss et al., 2007), and
targeting proteins to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) via the
attachment of a C-terminal (K/H) DEL signal (Denecke et
al., 1992). The most important factors that directly affect
the performance of stable transformation are the variety
and the physiology of the plant.
Transient transformation
Transient transformation is the proper method to achieve
the rapid production of vital proteins in tobacco. In contrast
to the case of stable genomic integration, a large amount of
recombinant protein can be produced in less than five days
post-infection using the transient transformation method.
Nevertheless, nuclear and transient transformation
methods have similar advantages. For the production of
pharmaceutical materials using viral coding sequences via
Agrobacterium tumefaciens, transient expression is the
proper method because it offers a high level of expression
with the lowest input. Different strategies have been
developed to increase the efficiency of transient
expression. One of the successes achieved by scientists
as a promising approach to directly transforming cells with
a virus using Agrobacterium tumefaciens has decreased
the energy required for genetically transforming tobacco
(Gleba et al., 2005). The principle of this method to transfer
specific components of the viral expression platform by
mixing a dissimilar Agrobacterium strain harbouring
portions of the viral machinery, with recombination
occurring intracellularly once infection has occurred. By
manipulating the viral codons and applying classic
eukaryotic introns, the efficiency of gene delivery has been
significantly increased. Thus, the required amount of the
essential infectious Agrobacterium was reduced. For
example, 1 litre of an overnight culture could be used to
infect nearly 1000 kg of tobacco leaf tissue, yielding up to 4
kg of recombinant protein at 40% TSP (Marillonnet et al.,
2005). This example demonstrates represents the scale
that are presently being explored to maximize protein yield
while reducing the input costs, resulting in an estimated $1/
kg of raw protein or $50/kg of purified protein. Another
alternative is to insert the viral machinery required to
prevent tobacco-gene silencing via stable nuclear
transformation. Applying this method will decrease the
delivery requirements of the deconstructed viral vectors
(Azhakanandam et al., 2007). In general, transient
expression has two main problems, including the high
technical requirements for induction and high risk of
accidentally spreading the infection to wild species. In

addition, this method is limited to controlled conditions,
such as those of a greenhouse or laboratory. Although, the
latter drawback is less of a concern because the controlled
environments eliminate the risks of cross-fertilization that
could potentially occur when transgenic plants are grown in
open fields. The agro-infiltration method that was
developed by (Dillen et al., 1997) is another technique for
transient expression. This method involves the infiltration of
a suspension of recombinant Agrobacterium tumefaciens
into tobacco leaf tissue, which in turn facilitates the transfer
of T-DNA to a very high percentage of the cells. The
method also positively affects the intensity of transient
expression in transgenic crops. A method allowing transient
expression in tobacco has been specifically developed as a
very rapid and high-yield strategy for the production of
clinical-grade bio-pharmaceuticals (Pogue et al., 2010;
Vzina et al., 2009).
Plastid transformation
Plastid transformation is an efficient alternative to nuclear
transformation because has several advantages that latter
method lacks. For example, despite the enormous
importance of the delivery of a normal bio-containment of
transgene flow by out-crossing, the transgene cannot be
transferred due to the lack of chloroplasts in pollen, thereby
allaying public concerns regarding genetically modified
plants (Meyer et al., 2010; Pantaleoni et al., 2014).
Transgenic plants subjected to homoplastomic chloroplast
transformation are selected after several generations of
plants have been regenerated from the gene-gun
bombarded leaf explants, meaning that the plant
chloroplast genome has had opportunity to incorporate the
transgene. The selection of the above-mentioned
bombarded leaf explants is conducted on a medium
containing a either spectinomycin or streptomycin.
Researchers have achieved a noticeable yield of
therapeutic human and bacterial proteins, ranging from
3-6% of the total soluble proteins, using the tobacco
chloroplast-transformation technique (Reddy et al., 2002;
Oey et al., 2009) achieved very high-level expression of a
proteinaceous antibiotic, which comprised approximately
70% of the soluble proteins, through employing a
chloroplast transformation system, which is the most
significant yield of recombinant protein attained using
transgenic plants to date. Although plastid transformation
has an enormous potential, its application remains
restricted. In that regard, even though plastid
transformation has been attained in plant species, such as
lettuce, eggplant, soybeans and tomatoes (Bock, 2007),
the plant most commonly modified using a chloroplast
transformation system is tobacco, which is highly regulated
and is inedible due to its high level of toxic alkaloids.
Finally, whether the protein stability will change over time,
even with refrigeration, is a matter of concern (Horn et al.,
2004).
Plant-cell suspension cultures
One of the best plant-based alternatives to mammalian
cells for the production of biopharmaceuticals is a plant-cell
suspension, which is a robust system involving a simple
purification procedure and easy downstream processing
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Abiri et al.
Transgenic Plants
(Kim et al., 2008). Although this system requires a high

level of sterility to control contamination, pharmaceuticals
with a high level of purity can be produced using it
(Franconi et al., 2010). Additionally, in contrast to plant-cell
culture systems, plant-cell suspension systems eliminate
the regeneration process, and accordingly, is a rapid
procedure (Shaaltiel et al., 2007). Despite having
numerous advantages over other systems, plant-cell
suspension systems have been established only for a small
number of plants, such as tobacco, carrot, Arabidopsis and
rice. Moreover, due to the certain limiting factors, such as
increasing proteolytic activity, which leads to a low
concentration of the recombinant protein during the late
stationary phase, this system is not the best method of
protein expression (Obembe et al., 2011).
Arabidopsis
Plants with appropriate traits have been discovered in
genetic-engineering investigations. Of all the known plants
in the Kingdom, Arabidopsis has been the main plant used
for genetic transformation. Among the traits of Arabidopsis,
the short generation period, small genome size, presence
of a self-pollination mating system, ease of in vitro
culturing, easy regeneration and in vivo transformation, as
well as its lack of food and feed applications, are
interesting characteristics that have led scientists to exploit
this model plant (Koornneef and Meinke, 2010). Due to its
prolific seed production and rapid propagation rate,
Arabidopsis appears to be capable of generating a range of
various products. Like other seed-producing plant
bioreactors, for the production of recombinant proteins,
Arabidopsis should be transformed during the early stages
of growth, because its development toward the flowering
stage may increase the risk of environmental
contamination (Ruebelt et al., 2006). High levels of
recombinant protein accumulation in Arabidopsis seeds
have been achieved using a seed-specific expression
cassette (Van Droogenbroeck et al., 2007).
Cereals and legumes
As protein synthesis and protein storage organelles, seeds
have a critical role in plant molecular farming. The most
important reasons for a seed-based system being an ideal
platform for molecular farming are that seeds allow the
long-term storage of proteins due to having an appropriate
biochemical environment, a low water content and low
protease activities and that they possess biosafety and are
easy to transport (Stoger et al., 2002b). The lack of
phenolic components is another advantage of cereal seeds
compared to other plant bioreactors, such as tobacco, that
contain phenolic components in their leaves. Generally, the
downstream process of removing phenol from the products
is time consuming and expensive (Ma et al., 2003). As is
the case for other plant bioreactors used in molecular
farming, seed-based systems have some drawbacks. The
seed-based transgenic plants must reach the flowering
stage before the recombinant proteins can be extracted,
which significantly increases the possibility of
environmental contamination by the pollen of the
transgenic plants. To reduce the risk of this type of
environmental contamination, plant bioreactors that
accumulate recombinant proteins in their vegetative
organelles are preferable to systems involving the flowering

cycle (Twyman et al., 2003).
Cereals have particular characteristics that have
encouraged scientists to use members of this family as
model plants in molecular farming. Cereal endosperms are
the most important components for researchers due to their
soluble-protein content. Soluble proteins can be recognized
and separated easily in cereals by displaying antibody role
in molecular farming (Han et al., 2006). Among the cereals,
wheat is not as an appropriate model plant because of the
low efficiency of its transformation (Stevens et al., 2000).
Some of the recombinant proteins that have been extracted
from seed bioreactors are the most efficient vaccine
antigens (Wu et al., 2007), cell-culture proteins (Nandi et
al., 2002), industrial enzymes (Hood et al., 2007),
therapeutic antibodies (Stger et al., 2000) and cytokines
(Zhu et al., 1994). Among the seed-based bioreactors,
maize is the major viable plant that produces recombinant
proteins in large amounts. Some of the remarkable
features regarding this model plant compared with those of
other plant systems used in molecular farming are the
existence of well-established techniques for its tissue
culture and transformation, its production of high levels of
biomass and the ease of scaling up its use. Moreover, this
plant has the ability to produce recombinant antibodies as
well as protease inhibitors and enzymes for
pharmaceutical/technical applications, such as aprotinin,
laccase, and trypsin (Hood, 2002).
One of the initial plant molecular-farming investigations
was conducted in 2003 by Xue, who used barley as a
bioreactor to produce a highly active and thermo-tolerant
hybrid cellulase (1,4--glucanase) (Xue, 2003). Other types
of recombinant proteins and materials have been produced
in barley, of which serum albumin, lactoferrin, lysozyme,
1-antitrypsin and human antithrombin III are the most
important examples (Stahl et al., 2002). Using rice as the
host plant, Anzai and colleagues have successfully
expressed human lactoferrin (Anzai et al., 2000). The
recombinant single-chain Fv antibody directed against
carcinoembryonic antigen that was produced in wheat and
rice could be preserved for up to 4 or 5 months at room
temperature without any loss in activity or of the product
(Stger et al., 2000). Although soybean and alfalfa plants
produce a relatively smaller amount of green biomass
compared with that of tobacco and maize, their ability to
directly utilize atmospheric nitrogen through nitrogen
fixation make them ideal plants for the production of
recombinant antibodies and other proteins (Ma et al.,
2003).
Vegetables and Fruits
Notably, fruits, vegetables and leafy crops are consumed in
the form of moderately processed or entirely raw foods. In
addition, these groups of plant products are normally free
of toxicants and are rich in nutrients, which make them
particularly appropriate for the production of recombinant
vaccine subunits, antibodies, and food additives for active
immunotherapy (Ma et al., 2003). Potatoes have been
used extensively for the production of plant-derived
vaccines, which have been administered to humans in
many clinical trials.
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Abiri et al.
Transgenic Plants
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum), potato (Solanum

tuberosum), banana (Musa acuminata colla) and carrot
(Daucus carota spp. sativus) plants have been successfully
utilized for the expression of vaccine subunits. Interestingly,
among these plants, tomato plants have been utilized as
model genetically transformed producers of the first plantderived rabies-vaccine component, HIV-gag and HBsAg
proteins (Sala et al., 2003). The accumulation of betaamyloid (A) in the brain initiates the development of
Alzheimer's disease (AD), which is a neurodegenerative
disease. The accumulation of this toxic protein in the brain
can lead to neuronal destruction and intensification of the
disease process. Administering an antigen directed against
this toxic protein might be the most useful strategy to treat
AD or at least to arrest its progress. To this end, scientists
have successfully expressed A in tomatoes (Youm et al.,
2008). Moreover, thymosin 1 has been expressed in
tomato fruits through Agrobacterium-mediated
transformation, and this recombinant protein also been
used to treat cancer and viral infections (Cheng et al.,
2003). The potato plant, which is another member of the
Solanaceae family, has attracted the attention of
researchers wishing to produce plant-based recombinant
proteins. Ma et al. (2003) demonstrated that the potato
tuber is a suitable host for the production of diagnostic
antibody-fusion proteins, human milk proteins, and other
antibodies. Banana plants have been considered as green
bioreactors for the production of recombinant antibodies
and vaccines. The transgenic fruits of different varieties of
banana commonly grown in countries in which vaccines
are most desperately needed can be consumed as raw
materials by both children and adults or the vaccine
subunits within them can be purified (Ma et al., 2003). The
specific potential of carrots for plant engineering have led
to this plant becoming an ideal candidate for tissue culture
and genetic transformation, as well as for plant molecular
farming (Muller et al., 2003).
Celery cabbage (Brassica rapa var. pekinensis),
lettuce (Lactuca sativa), and cauliflower (Brassica oleracea
var. botrytis) are other vegetables that have been
considered for plant molecular farming application,
although their low regeneration rates and recombinant
expression levels remain challenging (Tacket and Mason,
1999).
Oilseeds
Plants bearing seeds that are rich in oil are known as
oilseed plants. Safflower, coconut, peanut, sunflower, palm,
sesame, olive, rapeseed and rice (bran) are examples of
oilseed plants (Moloney et al., 2003). Safflower and
rapeseed have been employed as useful sources of
recombinant proteins due to their protein-production
capability and the simplicity of purifying the proteins they
produce. In addition to the low cost and low acreage
associated with their use, the high protein yield obtained
and their being self-pollinating plants are other advantages
of these oilseed organisms. To produce recombinant
proteins in such organisms, scientists exploited oleosin
proteins, which are structural components of safflower
cells. Oleosins are small structural proteins that are
attached to the surface of oil bodies and subcellular
organelles that store oils. Oleosin-recombinant fusion
proteins must be detached so that they can be extracted,

which can be achieved using a simple procedure, namely,
endoprotease digestion (Boothe et al., 1997). Safflowerderived insulin and hirudin are new-generation
pharmaceutical proteins that have produced by oilseed
plants (Spk et al., 2008).
Aquatic plants
Green-cell factories are also options for plant molecular
farming. Aquatic plants are promising green-cell platforms
for the introduction of genes and the production of novel
recombinant proteins. To this end, the chloroplast and
nuclear genomes of five different microalgal species,
namely, Cylindrotheca fusifornzis, Symbiodinium
microadriaticum, Amphidinium carterae, Pheaeodactylum
tricornutu and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, have been
successfully transformed. Among the above-mentioned
algal species, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is the most
suitable host for the production of edible vaccine subunits
(Potvin and Zhang, 2010; Rasala et al., 2010), antibodies
(Mayfield and Franklin, 2005), blood proteins (Manuell et
al., 2007), industrial phytases (Yoon et al., 2011), and a
growth factor within chloroplasts (Rasala et al., 2010). Their
lack of toxicity, low expression levels, low cost, short
growth period, high yield and capability for fresh use are
the most significant advantages of employing microalgae to
overcome the current obstacles in plant molecular farming
(Pryer et al., 2002; Zaslavskaia et al., 2000).
Another reliable plant bioreactor for the production of
pharmaceutical products is duckweed. Duckweed is a
monocotyledonous plant belonging to the Lemnaceae
family, which includes four major subspecies, namely,
Wolffiella, Spirodela, Lemna and Wolffia (Zhang et al.,
2010). Like other plant bioreactors, duckweed has many
advantages for the production of recombinant proteins
(Stomp, 2005). Some of specific features of this plant are
that it is fast-growing, easy to harvest, safe, accumulates
high levels of protein, and can produce complex proteins
(Popov et al., 2006). Agrobacterium tumefaciens and
biolistics are the main methods used to transfer genes to
duckweed, such in the case for other plants. Interferon 2
(De Leede et al., 2008), avian influenza H5N1
hemagglutinin (Gu and Glatz, 2007), aprotinin (Rival et al.,
2008), anti-CD20 mAb (BLX-301), human plasmin
(BLX-155) (Paul and Ma, 2011), a monoclonal antibody
(Cox et al., 2006) and plasminogen (Spencer et al., 2011)
are some of the recombinant proteins that have been
produced at various levels by duckweed (Stomp, 2005;
Vunsh et al., 2007).
Glycosylation as a modification mechanism in
transgenic plants
Modifying recombinant proteins through post-translational
processes plays an important role in their functions. Posttranslational modifications, such as glycosylation,
phosphorylation, sulphation and methylation, are vital in
transgenic higher eukaryotic organisms (Gomord et al.,
2004). One of the most important post-translational
modifications is glycosylation. Certain aspects of this
enzymatic process, in which glycans are attached to
organic molecules such as proteins and lipids, are
significantly different in plants and mammalian cells. The
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Abiri et al.
Transgenic Plants
basic N-acetyl glucosamine (GlcNAc)-mannose precursor

structures added to the glycosylation sites of proteins
within the endoplasmic reticulum of plant and mammalian
cells are identical, but evolution of the Golgi apparatus has
caused considerable variation. Glycosylation affects the
basic biological functions of proteins, such as their ligandreceptor interactions, specific activity and immunogenicity.
A chain of oligosaccharides can be formed via either O- or
N-linked glycosylation. N-linked glycosylation occurs within
the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and the primary
oligosaccharide chain is further processed during its exit
from the ER and passage through the Golgi apparatus
(GA) (Balen et al., 2006).
Recent reports concerning glycosylation within
transgenic plants suggested that the pattern of
glycosylation of an Fc antibody did not have a large effect
on antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) or the
stimulation of the complement cascade. However, four
aspects are worth mentioning in relation to the potential
effects of adding carbohydrate moieties and replacing them
are the following: a) the immunogenicity of plant N-glycans
per se, b) the immunogenicity of plant N-glycans in the
presence of a given glycoprotein, c) probable allergies to
plant N-glycans, and d) the impact of these carbohydrate
moieties on pharmacokinetics (Pujol et al., 2007). A general
problem is that some antibodies are not produced against
compounds consisting of a large number of
monosaccharides linked glycosidically, when inoculated
with plant-based enzymes. The best example of this
phenomenon is the antagonistic reaction of N-glycans with
horseradish peroxidase. In addition, these antibodies
interact with glycoproteins from plants, insects and snails
that contain the same (1,3)-fucose and (1,2)-xylose
glycoepitopes (Chargelegue et al., 2000). Unfortunately,
the products of plant glycosylation can occasionally lead to
side effects, such as allergic reactions. Because persons
who are prone to pollen allergies have IgE (Ig: insoluble
glycoproteins) and IgG4 reactivity to glycoepitopes, it is
rational to attribute the allergenicity of plant-based
glycosylated antibodies to the existence of allergenic
factors, such as glycoproteins containing (1,3)-fucose and
(1,2)-xylose. An appropriate example is the allergenic
factors of olive-tree pollens, which contain a glycoprotein
with (1,3)-fucose and (1,2)-xylose groups that are
capable of inducing histamine release by basophils
(Crdaba et al., 2000). Therefore, it may be impossible to
predict the side effects of plant-based glycosylated
antibodies in humans to whom they are administered.
Eventually, engineering the N-glycosylation processes of
plants will enhance the efficacy of plant-made
pharmaceuticals (PMPs) not only regarding the
immunogenicity of N-glycans in humans but also through
generating glycovariants of therapeutic proteins with a
higher bioactivity levels than those produced in cultured
mammalian cells (Saint-Jore-Dupas et al., 2007). In this
regard, priority should be given to antibodies containing a
single major N-glycan species and lacking detectable
levels of plant-specific N-glycans (Crdaba et al., 2000).
Such antibodies have been shown to induce better
a n t i b o d y d e p e n d e n t c e l l - m e d i a t e d c y t o t o x i c i t y,
demonstrating the potential of plants as systems for the
expression of highly demanded anti-cancer antibodies (Cox

et al., 2006).
The effect of environmental factors on transgenic
plants
The effects of environmental factors on the health, biomass
production and activity of plants are matters of concern
even under normal conditions; however, these factors
become more serious concerns during the posttransformational period. Indeed, genetically transformed
plants are extremely susceptible to the effects of
environmental factors immediately after being transferring
to natural soil. Environmental condition directly affects the
quality and quantity of recombinant proteins produced. The
factors that may negatively affect transgenic plants are
divided into biotic and abiotic stresses. In this regards,
light, drought, salinity, nutritional deficits and cold have
negative effects on plant products. These factors are
abiotic stresses (Jamal et al., 2009). Light plays a crucial
role in regulating photosynthesis and the phenological
events that drive the growth and development of plants
toward the flowering stage (Dahl et al., 1995). Generally,
plants use light of 400- and 740-nm wavelengths to
conduct photosynthesis. Light of these wavelengths is
called photosynthetically active radiation. Photons of
wavelengths lower and higher than this range are either
impractical or destructive for photosynthesis due to their
insufficient or extremely high energy levels (Zhu et al.,
2008). To protect recombinant proteins against stresses,
scientists try to optimize the light condition, such as the
length of the day and the light intensity. Other stresses,
such as drought, restrict the establishment of crops. This
stress decreases the productivity and quality of plants and
leads to morphological changes. Consequently, the
expression of recombinant proteins may be downregulated. Similar to the effects of other stresses, drought
leads to the accumulation of reactive oxygen species
(ROS) in plants, causing oxidative stress (Pastori and
Foyer, 2002). Moreover, physiological traits, such as the
carbon-assimilation and stomatal-conductance rates are
prominent determinants of fitness under drought conditions
due to their relevance to the efficiency of water-use and
photosynthesis (Heschel and Riginos, 2005). Another
restricting factor of plant molecular farming is salinity.
Approximately one-third of the world's irrigated farms are
ineffective due to the excess salt content of the soil
(Munns, 2005). The adverse effects of salt on plants are
manifested in two ways. Firstly, a high concentration of salt
in the soil directly hampers water absorption by the roots
by affecting root-soil osmotic regulation. Secondly, salt
accumulation in various organs poisons plants (Munns and
Tester, 2008). The two toxic ions derived from NaCl, Na+
and Cl-, can damage plant cells through both osmotic and
ionic mechanisms (Chinnusamy et al., 2005). Quantitative
and qualitative changes in metabolite synthesis, as well as
the occurrence of enhanced metabolic toxicity are a few of
the most usual indicators of stressed plants (Karimi et al.,
2005). Furthermore, salt stress alters the expression of
cell-cycle progression genes through affecting mitotic cell
division (Burssens et al., 2000). All of these cellular
processes may be affected by altered hormonal
homeostasis occurring under salt-stress conditions (Lee et
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Abiri et al.
Transgenic Plants
al., 2001). It has been well documented that the abscisic

acid (ABA) content of plants increases under salt-stress
conditions (Bray, 2002). Adaptation to saline stress is
accompanied by alterations in the level of numerous
metabolites, proteins, and mRNAs (Garca et al., 1997). A
variety of genes, the expression of which is activated in
response to salt stress, have been identified and have
been transferred to plants (Rensink et al., 2005). Because
high salinity conditions promote plant-cell dehydration (Liu
et al., 2011), many of the genes that are activated by saline
stress are also activated by drought. The expression of the
majority of these genes is regulated by abscisic acid (ABA),
a plant hormone that is generated in response to saline
stress (Wilkinson and Davies, 2002).
Another important environmental factor that affects
plant growth and productivity is temperature. Hightemperature stress induces certain physiological,
biochemical, and genetic changes in plants, including
protein denaturation, lipid liquefaction, and perturbation of
membrane integrity (Levitt, 1980). Among the suppositions
regarding high-temperature acclimation are that several
mechanisms of adaptation to high temperature involving
the induction of protein synthesis or altered protein
functions may exist (Turner et al., 2001). High
temperatures decrease the rate of synthesis of normal
cellular proteins and induce the synthesis of heat-shock
proteins (Parsell and Lindquist, 1993). High temperatures
are harmful to plant cells, leading to a loss of viability. In
Medicago sativa transgenic plants, heat can inactivate the
gene that encodes the phosphinothricin/Nacetyltransferase recombinant protein (Walter et al., 1992).
Sometimes, transferring plants to an environment with a
stressful heat level initiates the expression of members of
heat-shock protein/chaperone cascades that prevent the
misfolding, denaturation and aberrant aggregation of
cellular proteins (Wang et al., 2004). Plants lacking
temperature adaptation may be incapable of inducing
structural or functional changes in their proteins. According
to Stevens et al. (Stevens et al., 2000), exposure to 25 C
and high light conditions can increase the biomass and
total soluble protein content of plants, whereas exposure to
high light conditions and 15 C favoured the production of a
recombinant monoclonal antibody by transgenic tobacco
plants.
The temperature also affects the glycosylation of
recombinant proteins (antibodies) in plants. Sulphur (S) is a
major component of any protein molecule; hence, its
uptake and assimilation can affect the production of
recombinant proteins in transgenic plants. Of course, S
uptake is dependent upon a constant supply of the
precursor of cysteine, O-acetylserine, which in turn, is
dependent on the presence of adequate nitrogen and
carbon sources (Kopriva and Rennenberg, 2004). As a
good example, the combined application of S and N affects
the accumulation of lipids in rapeseed (Brassica napus L.)
via the induced increase in the rate of protein synthesis
(Fazli et al., 2005). The significantly positive correlation of
the antibody and total protein contents of transgenic plants
allows the prediction of the fluctuating trend of antibody
accumulation through monitoring changes in the amounts
of total protein. The above-mentioned facts suggest that
providing balanced nutrition would enhance the production

of pharmaceutical proteins by transgenic plants.
Large-scale transient gene transfection, climate riskfree production systems, and biosafety considerations
Plant biotechnology typically relies on two strategies for
delivery and expression of heterologous genes in plants,
including a) stable genetic transformation, and b) transient
expression using viral vectors (Marillonnet et al., 2005). In
recent years, the technological progression in virus-based
vectors has allowed plants to become a feasible platform
for recombinant proteins (RPs) production, while RPs were
only able to be produced from cultures of mammalian,
insect, and bacteria cells, previously. The plant-based RPs
are more preferable in terms of versatility, speed, cost,
scalability, and safety over the current production
paradigms (Chen and Lai, 2014). In spite of being a faster
method, the transient approach is hampered by low
contagiosity of viral vectors carrying average- or largesized genes. Fortunately, these drawbacks have been
subject to troubleshooting by developing constructs for the
efficient delivery of RNA viral vectors as DNA precursors.
The mentioned efforts have tended to expanding systemic
Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transfection of viral
replicons for efficient transient expression in plants. As
such, Agrobacterium-mediated delivery of the target
constructs using results in gene amplification in all
developed leaves of a plant simultaneously. This process is
also referred to as "magnifection" that can be performed on
a large scale and with different plant species. The
mentioned technique incorporates advantages of three
biological systems consisting of: a) the transfection
efficiency of A. tumefaciens, b) the high expression yield
obtained with viral vectors, and c) the post-translational
capabilities of a plant. This procedure does not entail
genetic modification of plants and is faster than other
current methods (Marillonnet et al., 2005). Transient
expression systems have been established to eliminate the
long-time frame of generating transgenic plants, so that the
transgene is not integrated into the plant genome but rather
quickly directs the production of the RP while residing
transiently within the plant cell. In addition to the significant
acceleration of production timeline, this approach improves
the recombinant proteins accumulation level by excluding
the position effect of variable expression instigated by the
random integration of transgene within the genome
(Komarova et al., 2010). In another word, the climate riskfree molecular farming systems have become more
achievable by conducting the transient gene transfection.
Beside all these advances achieved by the transient
expression technology, some complementary strategies
have been taken into consideration to limit the potential
environmental and human health impacts linked to PMF.
Specifically, cell cultures of transgenic plants, physical
containment, dedicated land, plastid transformation,
biological confinement, male sterility, gene use restriction
technologies (GURTs), expression from or in roots,
expression in edible parts and seeds, post-harvest
inducible expression, and temporal confinement have been
suggested as additional solutions to minimize the risks of
PMF (Breyer et al., 2009).
!33
Abiri et al.
Transgenic Plants
Industrialization, current status and perspectives

As plant molecular farming has come of age, there have
been technological progresses on many aspects, including
transformation methods, regulating gene expression,
protein targeting and accumulation, as well as the use of
different crops as production platforms (Twyman et al.,
2003). Recently, plant molecular farming has been
proposed as an example of a green development scheme
in convergence with sustainable agricultural industries.
Despite, the yield improvement remains as one of the most
challenging issues, because the product yield has a
significant impact on economic feasibility of any related
project.
The advantages of transgenic plants over other
expression systems make them become industrialized as
economic alternatives to the conventional pharmaceutics.
Several plant-made pharmaceuticals, including the enzyme
glucocerebrosidase (GCase), insulin and Interferon alfa 2b
[IFN-alpha (2b)], have approached commercialization with
low costs and large-scale production. Interestingly, these
achievements have been attached to substantial patenting
activities as well. Reportedly, there was a tangible
downward trend in the number of patents filed from 2002 to
2008, and a greater number of patents were filed by public
sector institutions or inventors than by the private sector
(Drake and Thangaraj, 2010). The USA dominated
patenting activity providing nearly 30% of inventors. Most
of the patents were related to vaccine candidates (55%),
followed by therapeutics and antibodies with 38 and 7%,
respectively (Drake and Thangaraj, 2010).
Conclusions
Plant molecular farming has been shown to be a promising
biotechnological approach; however, because this
approach is novel, its efficacy may be disputed. Methods
that facilitate plant cultivation under extremely controlled
conditions should be developed for the subsequent stages
of this process, as we move away from aseptic plant-cell
cultures to non-aseptic conditions in which plants are
grown traditionally or are grown hydroponically using
compost. Plant molecular farming has significant potential
for the development of medicinal products. With regard to
the history of plant molecular farming, the current major
focus is to accelerate the improvement of plant
biotechnological procedures for the generation of new
products, as well as conventional products. The most
important challenges in this field are identifying new plant
resources and optimizing protocols for producing high
levels of recombinant proteins. The cryptic medicinal plant
such as Andrographis paniculata (Valdiani et al., 2013) can
be introduced as an impending candidates (Valdiani et al.,
2012), while the genetic (Valdiani et al., 2014), and
proteomic (Talei et al., 2014) analyses of the herb have
both performed promising horizons for being subjected to
plant molecular farming.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to appreciate the Long-term
Research Grants Scheme (LRGS), Food Security Rice
Research Program of the Ministry of Higher Education,
Malaysia, for creating an opportunity to conduct the present
review article.
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Abiri et al.

A Critical Review of the Concept of Transgenic Plants:

Rambod Abiri1,2, Alireza Valdiani1*, Mahmood

of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biotechnology and

Curr. Issues Mol. Biol. 18: 21-42.

(Zhang and Huang,

Carnation (Dianthus caryophylus)

(Burana et al., 2014)

Orchids (Cymbidium spp.,

(Fischer et al., 2012)

Indian Mustard (Brassica juncea)

Canola (Brasicca napus)

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum)

(Ashraf et al., 2008)

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa)

Beans (Phaseolus spp.)

Soybean (Glycine max)

Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan)

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea)

Peas (Pisum sativum)

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum)

Rice (Oryza sativa)

(Wang et al., 2005)

Maize (Zea mays)

Rye (Secale cereal)

(Fischer et al., 2012)

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor)

Wheat (Triticum aestivum)

Barley (Hordeum vulgare)

(Wang et al., 2005)

Tobacco (Nicotiana tobaccum, N.

(Fischer et al., 2012)

(Park and Cheong.,

Petunia (Petunia hybrida)

(Fischer et al., 2012)

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)

plants using various methods, such as Agrobacterium

Curr. Issues Mol. Biol. 18: 21-42.

improve their nutrient uptake (Sahebi et al., 2014), to

have been listed in Figure 1. By introducing Bt (Bacillus

molecular farming (PMF) researchers do not focus on

and microbial cells). Accordingly, plant molecular farming is

suitable for molecular farming than are dry-tissue plants,

Figure 2. Comparison between various hosts in molecular farming.

type of explant, the plasmid vector, the agrobacterial strain,

Types of PGRs and plant regeneration

nuts and fruits, such as apple (Malus domestica),

which can cause unwanted and unexpected pleiotropic

Curr. Issues Mol. Biol. 18: 21-42.

living organisms by increasing the translational efficacy of

Lewis Y mAb, H10 mAb, CO17-1A mAb, TheraCIM, B294

against several human diseases, including Type-1 diabetes

organelles or other organelles for standard eukaryotic posttranslational modifications.

accidentally spreading the infection to wild species. In

(Kim et al., 2008). Although this system requires a high

organelles are preferable to systems involving the flowering

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum), potato (Solanum

proteins must be detached so that they can be extracted,

basic N-acetyl glucosamine (GlcNAc)-mannose precursor