The red alga as a host for molecular farming: Efficient production of immunologically active hepatitis C virus glycoprotein.

Microalgae are promising production platforms for the cost-effective production of recombinant proteins. We have recently established that the red alga provides superior transgene expression properties, due to the episomal maintenance of transformation vectors as multicopy plasmids in the nucleus. Here, we have explored the potential of to synthesize complex pharmaceutical proteins to high levels.

Optimized transgene expression in the red alga Porphyridium purpureum and efficient recombinant protein secretion into the culture medium.

Microalgae represent a promising but yet underexplored production platform for biotechnology. The vast majority of studies on recombinant protein expression in algae have been conducted in a single species, the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. However, due to epigenetic silencing, transgene expression in Chlamydomonas is often inefficient.

Overexpression of Sedoheptulose-1,7-Bisphosphatase Enhances Photosynthesis in and Has No Effect on the Abundance of Other Calvin-Benson Cycle Enzymes.

The productivity of plants and microalgae needs to be increased to feed the growing world population and to promote the development of a low-carbon economy. This goal can be achieved by improving photosynthesis via genetic engineering. In this study, we have employed the Modular Cloning strategy to overexpress the Calvin-Benson cycle (CBC) enzyme sedoheptulose-1,7-bisphosphatase (SBP1) up to threefold in the unicellular green alga .

Absolute Quantification of Major Photosynthetic Protein Complexes in Using Quantification Concatamers (QconCATs).

For modeling approaches in systems biology, knowledge of the absolute abundances of cellular proteins is essential. One way to gain this knowledge is the use of quantification concatamers (QconCATs), which are synthetic proteins consisting of proteotypic peptides derived from the target proteins to be quantified. The QconCAT protein is labeled with a heavy isotope upon expression in and known amounts of the purified protein are spiked into a whole cell protein extract.

Understanding the basis of a novel fruit type in Brassicaceae: conservation and deviation in expression patterns of six genes.

Background: Variation in fruit morphology is important for plant fitness because it influences dispersal capabilities. Approximately half the members of tribe Brassiceae (Brassicaceae) exhibit fruits with segmentation and variable dehiscence, called heteroarthrocarpy. The knowledge of the genetics of fruit patterning in Arabidopsis offers the opportunity to ask: (1) whether this genetic pathway is conserved in taxa with different fruit morphologies; (2) how the pathway may be modified to produce indehiscence; and (3) whether the pathway has been recruited for a novel abscission zone.