Putting the moves on plant viruses
Plant virologists have studied movement proteins for about 10 years, but recent work in several labs has suggested that the proteins may be just as valuable to the biotech industry as they are to plant viruses. Researchers are using them to design novel viral vectors that can easily put new genes into plants, where they will be expressed at high levels, thereby turning the plants into factories for making pharmaceutical proteins and industrial enzymes. A demonstration project completed last summer in which scientists at Biosource Genetics Corporation of Vacaville, California, and the University of California, Riverside, produced the protein tricosanthin, an experimental AIDS drug, in field tobacco, has already shown that the approach works. The plant virus vectors might also be useful in agriculture for genetically engineering new strains of crop plants. In particular, they might be valuable for the cereals, which are hard to genetically engineer by current methods. And the work might even allow the viral proteins to be turned against the viruses, by aiding in the development of virus-resistant plants.
- OSTI ID:
- 7160088
- Journal Information:
- Science (Washington, D.C.); (United States), Vol. 255:5042; ISSN 0036-8075
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Characterization of defective interfering RNAs associated with RNA plant viruses
Characterization of a defective interfering RNA that contains a mosaic of a plant viral genome