Poster: Metabolic Engineering

Abs # 1007: Production of an antimicrobial peptide in transgenic rice plants

Presenter:	Shimada, Hiroaki , shimadah@rs.noda.tus.ac.jp
Authors	Shimada, Hiroaki  (A)   Imamura, Tomohiro  (A)   Kusano, Hiroaki  (A)   Taguchi, Sei-ichi  (B)
Affiliations:	(A): Dept. of Biol. Sci. & Technol., Tokyo University of Science (B): School of Agriculture, Meiji University

Molecular Farming is the genetic engineering of plants to produce totally new-use, non-food products, such as biopharmaceuticals, industrial enzymes and bioorganic compounds. Potentially this method includes economical and environmental advantages because most of the products will be derived from atmospheric carbon dioxide and biodegradable biomass. In addition, this system will be applied to the traditional agriculture system for production of these compounds without special costs. We have tried to establish a model system, by which a small-size protein would be produced in a transgenic plant. As a model compound, a broad-spectrum antimicrobial peptide, thanatin, was used. Downstream of the CaMV 35S promoter, a synthetic gene for thanatin was connected, and introduced into rice plants. A crude extract from leaves of the rice transformant showed apparent antimicrobial activity. The active fraction in the crude extract was analyzed by HPLC, and detected as a single peak, which has the same retention time with the authentic thanatin. The purified compound indicated strong antimicrobial activity, suggesting that the transformant produced a sufficient amount of thanatin as an active form. It also appears the usefulness of this system for production of small-size compounds.