The spectacular achievements of molecular biology have sparked a revolution in the biotechnology industry, offering potent tools to manipulate genetic resources to address the natural challenges and meeting the sustainable consumption demands of the world's growing population. Plant transgenesis is one of the major applications in genetic engineering to create crops, introducing novel traits not naturally found species. The integrated foreign genes named as trans genes can be come from another plant species or completely different species such as microbes or human. The first reported biomolecule produced in plants is avidin expressing in transgenic maize plants, a glycoprotein used mainly in diagnosis which is originally sourced from chicken eggs. Currently transgenic plants are used as miniaturized bioreactors to produce pharmaceutical products as well as the non-pharmaceutical products with industrially importance.
How are the trans genes incorporated to the plant genome?
The gene transformation or the integration of foreign genes into host genome is done by biological methods such as Agrobacterium mediated transformation, viral vector mediated transformation and non-biological methods such as particle bombardment (Gene gun), Silicon carbide fiber mediated gene transfer, laser microbeam induced gene transfer, electroporation, lipofection, microinjection and chemically stimulated DNA uptake by protoplast. Transformation method depends on the efficiency and the goals of the experiment prioritizing the precision and accuracy for the commercial scale outcomes. Most prevalently employed methods are Agrobacterium mediated transformation and the gene gun method. Agrobacterium mediated transformation is the conventional method conferring the ability of natural horizontal gene transfer through the specialized Ti-plasmids. Gene gun method involves the bombarding of exogenous DNA (trans genes) coated heavy metal microparticles towards the target cells under high pressurized inert gas or by high-voltage electronic discharge. Upon the integration of target DNA containing essential genetic information for pharmaceutical production into the host genome, the plant's protein synthesis machinery decodes this information resulting in the production of significant quantities of pharmaceutically active substances. In essence, the plant functions as a bioreactor, concurrently generating these substances alongside its native plant proteins. An array of platforms and technologies has arisen to scale up the production, encompassing options from plant cells or basic plants cultivated in bioreactors with precisely formulated synthetic media to entire plants flourishing in soil or hydroponic systems.
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