Annals of Botany 2005 96(2):343; doi:10.1093/aob/mci183
© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org
Molecular farming: plant-made pharmaceuticals and technical proteins.
Fischer, R. and Schillberg, S. (eds)
2004. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KgaA.
145 (hardback). 375 pp
P. MALIGA
This book is an up-to-date overview
of the emerging filed of molecular farming in plants. Nine of
the eighteen chapters are dedicated to descriptions of the available
production platforms (species or specialized expression methodology),
making to book the most comprehensive source on the topic. A
chapter each is dedicated to alfalfa leaves, cereal (maize,
rice, wheat and barley) and pea seeds, germinating seeds of
oilseed rape and falseflax, plant cell suspension and hairy
root cultures. Although not featured in a special chapter, tobacco
is the most commonly used test system throughout the book and
is an alternative to alfalfa for leaf-based production. Plant
viral vectors, transient DNA delivery by Agroinfiltration and
chloroplast-based expression are discussed in dedicated chapters.
For the novice, perhaps the most useful part is the overview
chapter by Richard Twyman, pointing out the advantages of, and
problems with the various expression systems. Also covered in
the overview chapter are three novel systems suitable for propagation
in closed bioreactors,
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (a unicellular
alga), and two tiny plants, a moss (
Physcomitrella patens) and
duckweed (
Lemna minor). Three of the remaining chapters focus
on potential products. Production of antibodies in plants has
the longest history, is closest to commercialization, and, arguably,
has the biggest potential market of any single protein type.
Production of vaccines and spider silk further exemplify the
use of plant production systems for pharmaceutical and industrial
purposes, respectively. In contrast to the many chapters on
systems, a single chapter each is dedicated to downstream processing
and to glycosylation. Obvious omissions are chapters covering
proteases, protein degradation, protein folding and stability.
Requirements and expectations of the pharmaceutical industry
and two chapters on biosafety and public perception round out
the topics at the end.
The strength of the book is that it brings together under the same cover an impressive up-to-date description of crop-based production systems currently in use. The loose format of invited chapters allows a more personal style of presentation, containing insights normally absent in formal journal publications. The various chapters unavoidably overlap, covering similar subject matter. The overlap ends up being a plus, as the reader can assemble a more complete view by integrating the biases of different laboratories. Having two chapters on biosafety and public acceptance may appear to be overkill. Not so, if we consider how quickly corn-based companies featured in the book disappeared in the wake of the Starlink fiasco and Prodigen's problematic field test.
The book has the typical shortcomings of low-budget publications: the figures are not in colour, most chapters lack conceptual diagrams and definitions, and the text is not available on the web; requirements that would make the book useful for teaching. Notable exceptions are a few well-illustrated chapters, for example by Gommord et al. on protein glycosylation.
The book will be useful for molecular biologists and protein biochemists in academia and industry with an interest in molecular pharming and for anyone interested in obtaining a quick overview of the state of the field.
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