Abstract:
Plants are increasingly used as alternative expression hosts for the
production of recombinant proteins offering many advantages
including higher biomass and the ability to perform posttranslational
modifications on complex proteins. Key challenges
for optimized accumulation of recombinant proteins in a plant
system still remain, including endogenous plant proteolytic
activity, which may severely compromise recombinant protein
stability. Several strategies have recently been applied to improve
protein stability by limiting protease action such as recombinant
protein production in various sub-cellular compartments or
application of protease inhibitors to limit protease action. A
short update on the current strategies applied is provided here,
with particular focus on sub-cellular sites previously selected
for recombinant protein production and the co-expression of
protease inhibitors to limit protease activity.