Plants as bioreactors
Transgenic plants are an attractive and cost-effective alternative to microbial systems for the production of biomolecules. Advances in biotechnology are enabling plants to be exploited as bioreactors for the production of proteins, carbohydrates and lipids. Not only might ‘tailor-made’ saccharides...
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Published in | Trends in biotechnology (Regular ed.) Vol. 13; no. 9; pp. 379 - 387 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Elsevier Ltd
1995
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Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Transgenic plants are an attractive and cost-effective alternative to microbial systems for the production of biomolecules. Advances in biotechnology are enabling plants to be exploited as bioreactors for the production of proteins, carbohydrates and lipids. Not only might ‘tailor-made’ saccharides and fatty acids of non-plant origin be synthesized in plants, but the overproduction of plant metabolites should also be feasible. Plants are also becoming economically important systems for producing heterologous proteins. Expressing heterologous proteins in plant material that is used in human food or animal feed allows proteins to be applied orally or topically without having to purify them from the plant material. Plants have a distinct advantage for these applications. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 ObjectType-Review-3 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0167-7799 1879-3096 |
DOI: | 10.1016/S0167-7799(00)88985-4 |