Production of recombinant miraculin using transgenic tomatoes in a closed cultivation system.

We constructed a cultivation system with a controlled light period, light intensity, temperature, and CO(2) concentration for mass production of the taste-modifying protein miraculin from transgenic tomatoes. The tomato plants exhibited normal growth and produced over 270 g of fresh weight (FW) fruit per plant, with the recombinant miraculin concentration reaching up to 90 microg per g FW of tomatoes. The recombinant miraculin content of transgenic tomatoes was compared to that of plants grown in a netted greenhouse.