• Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus: Expression of a ScFv-E2T fusion protein in alfalfa transgenic plants for the selective Targeting to antigen presenting cells

OSTACHUK A; CHIAVENNA S; GOMEZ C; PECORA A; PEREZ FILGUEIRA M; ESCRIBANO JA; ARDILA F; DUS SANTOS MARIA JOSE; WIGDOROVITZ A

Ouro Preto, Brasil

Simposio; 8th International Veterinary Immunology Symposium; 2007

Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus: Expression of E2T fusion protein in alfalfa transgenic plants .      The use of transgenic plants as vectors for the expression of viral and bacterial antigens has been increasingly tested as an alternative methodology for the production of experimental vaccines, based on their scaling-up simplicity, low risk of pathogen contamination and possibility of oral administration. However, a major drawback in most cases is the low expression levels of the recombinant antigens in plant tissues, which reduces practical applications. One strategy to solve this problem is the use of strong promoters for conducting transgene expression. Previous results obtained by our group employing transient expression assays in alfalfa (Medicago sativa), showed that Cassava Vein Mosaic Virus (CsVMV) promoter presented higher transcriptional activity than the 35S promoter.       Alfalfa transgenic plants were generated by infection of petioles with recombinant Agrobacterium tumefaciens, which contained the appropriate gene cloned in a pCAR vector, derived from pBI 121 (Clontech), downstream of CsVMV promoter. Plants were analyzed for the expression of E2T by ELISA. We estimate the concentration of both proteins in 1.2 ug/g leaf.