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De Marchis F, Vanzolini T, Maricchiolo E, Bellucci M, Menotta M, Di Mambro T, Aluigi A, Zattoni A, Roda B, Marassi V, Crinelli R, Pompa A. A biotechnological approach for the production of new protein bioplastics. Biotechnol J 2024; 19:e2300363. [PMID: 37801630 DOI: 10.1002/biot.202300363] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2023] [Revised: 09/06/2023] [Accepted: 09/27/2023] [Indexed: 10/08/2023]
Abstract
The future of biomaterial production will leverage biotechnology based on the domestication of cells as biological factories. Plants, algae, and bacteria can produce low-environmental impact biopolymers. Here, two strategies were developed to produce a biopolymer derived from a bioengineered vacuolar storage protein of the common bean (phaseolin; PHSL). The cys-added PHSL* forms linear-structured biopolymers when expressed in the thylakoids of transplastomic tobacco leaves by exploiting the formation of inter-chain disulfide bridges. The same protein without signal peptide (ΔPHSL*) accumulates in Escherichia coli inclusion bodies as high-molar-mass species polymers that can subsequently be oxidized to form disulfide crosslinking bridges in order to increase the stiffness of the biomaterial, a valid alternative to the use of chemical crosslinkers. The E. coli cells produced 300 times more engineered PHSL, measured as percentage of total soluble proteins, than transplastomic tobacco plants. Moreover, the thiol groups of cysteine allow the site-specific PEGylation of ΔPHSL*, which is a desirable functionality in the design of a protein-based drug carrier. In conclusion, ΔPHSL* expressed in E. coli has the potential to become an innovative biopolymer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca De Marchis
- Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources, Division of Perugia, National Research Council, Perugia, Italy
| | - Tania Vanzolini
- Department of Biomolecular Sciences, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino (PU), Italy
| | - Elisa Maricchiolo
- Department of Biomolecular Sciences, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino (PU), Italy
| | - Michele Bellucci
- Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources, Division of Perugia, National Research Council, Perugia, Italy
| | - Michele Menotta
- Department of Biomolecular Sciences, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino (PU), Italy
| | - Tomas Di Mambro
- Department of Biomolecular Sciences, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino (PU), Italy
| | - Annalisa Aluigi
- Department of Biomolecular Sciences, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino (PU), Italy
| | - Andrea Zattoni
- Department of Chemistry G. Ciamician, University of Bologna, Bologna (BO), Italy
| | - Barbara Roda
- Department of Chemistry G. Ciamician, University of Bologna, Bologna (BO), Italy
| | - Valentina Marassi
- Department of Chemistry G. Ciamician, University of Bologna, Bologna (BO), Italy
| | - Rita Crinelli
- Department of Biomolecular Sciences, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino (PU), Italy
| | - Andrea Pompa
- Department of Biomolecular Sciences, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino (PU), Italy
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Tamburino R, Marcolongo L, Sannino L, Ionata E, Scotti N. Plastid Transformation: New Challenges in the Circular Economy Era. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms232315254. [PMID: 36499577 PMCID: PMC9736159 DOI: 10.3390/ijms232315254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2022] [Revised: 11/29/2022] [Accepted: 11/30/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
In a circular economy era the transition towards renewable and sustainable materials is very urgent. The development of bio-based solutions, that can ensure technological circularity in many priority areas (e.g., agriculture, biotechnology, ecology, green industry, etc.), is very strategic. The agricultural and fishing industry wastes represent important feedstocks that require the development of sustainable and environmentally-friendly industrial processes to produce and recover biofuels, chemicals and bioactive molecules. In this context, the replacement, in industrial processes, of chemicals with enzyme-based catalysts assures great benefits to humans and the environment. In this review, we describe the potentiality of the plastid transformation technology as a sustainable and cheap platform for the production of recombinant industrial enzymes, summarize the current knowledge on the technology, and display examples of cellulolytic enzymes already produced. Further, we illustrate several types of bacterial auxiliary and chitinases/chitin deacetylases enzymes with high biotechnological value that could be manufactured by plastid transformation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachele Tamburino
- CNR-IBBR, Institute of Biosciences and BioResources, 80055 Naples, Italy
| | | | - Lorenza Sannino
- CNR-IBBR, Institute of Biosciences and BioResources, 80055 Naples, Italy
| | - Elena Ionata
- CNR-IRET, Research Institute on Terrestrial Ecosystems, 80131 Naples, Italy
| | - Nunzia Scotti
- CNR-IBBR, Institute of Biosciences and BioResources, 80055 Naples, Italy
- Correspondence:
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Marassi V, De Marchis F, Roda B, Bellucci M, Capecchi A, Reschiglian P, Pompa A, Zattoni A. Perspectives on protein biopolymers: miniaturized flow field-flow fractionation-assisted characterization of a single-cysteine mutated phaseolin expressed in transplastomic tobacco plants. J Chromatogr A 2021; 1637:461806. [PMID: 33360435 DOI: 10.1016/j.chroma.2020.461806] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2020] [Revised: 12/08/2020] [Accepted: 12/10/2020] [Indexed: 01/17/2023]
Abstract
The development of plant-based protein polymers to employ in biofilm production represents the promising intersection between material science and sustainability, and allows to obtain biodegradable materials that also possess excellent physicochemical properties. A possible candidate for protein biopolymer production is phaseolin, a storage protein highly abundant in P Vulgaris beans. We previously showed that transformed tobacco chloroplasts could be employed to express a mutated phaseolin carrying a signal peptide (directing it into the thylakoids) also enriched of a cysteine residue added to its C-terminal region. This modification allows for the formation of inter-chain disulfide bonds, as we previously demonstrated, and should promote polymerization. To verify the effect of the peptide modification and to quantify polymer formation, we employed hollow-fiber flow field-flow fractionation coupled to UV and multi-angle laser scattering detection (HF5-UV-MALS): HF5 allows for the selective size-based separation of phaseolin species, whereas MALS calculates molar mass and conformation state of each population. With the use of two different HF5 separation methods we first observed the native state of P.Vulgaris phaseolin, mainly assembled into trimers, and compared it to mutated phaseolin (P*) which instead resulted highly aggregated. Then we further characterized P* using a second separation method, discriminating between two and distinct high-molecular weight (HMW) species, one averaging 0.8 × 106 Da and the second reaching the tens of million Da. Insight on the conformation of these HMW species was offered from their conformation plots, which confirmed the positive impact of the Cys modification on polymerization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentina Marassi
- Department of Chemistry G. Ciamician, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy; byFlow srl, via dell'Arcoveggio 74, 40128 Bologna (BO), Italy
| | - Francesca De Marchis
- Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources-Research Division of Perugia, National Research Council of Italy, via della Madonna Alta 130, 06128, Perugia (PG), Italy
| | - Barbara Roda
- Department of Chemistry G. Ciamician, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy; byFlow srl, via dell'Arcoveggio 74, 40128 Bologna (BO), Italy
| | - Michele Bellucci
- Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources-Research Division of Perugia, National Research Council of Italy, via della Madonna Alta 130, 06128, Perugia (PG), Italy
| | - Alice Capecchi
- Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources-Research Division of Perugia, National Research Council of Italy, via della Madonna Alta 130, 06128, Perugia (PG), Italy
| | - Pierluigi Reschiglian
- Department of Chemistry G. Ciamician, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy; byFlow srl, via dell'Arcoveggio 74, 40128 Bologna (BO), Italy
| | - Andrea Pompa
- Department of Biomolecular Sciences, University of Urbino "Carlo Bo", via Donato Bramante 28, 61029 Urbino (PU), Italy
| | - Andrea Zattoni
- Department of Chemistry G. Ciamician, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy; byFlow srl, via dell'Arcoveggio 74, 40128 Bologna (BO), Italy.
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Morgenfeld MM, Vater CF, Alfano EF, Boccardo NA, Bravo-Almonacid FF. Translocation from the chloroplast stroma into the thylakoid lumen allows expression of recombinant epidermal growth factor in transplastomic tobacco plants. Transgenic Res 2020; 29:295-305. [PMID: 32318934 DOI: 10.1007/s11248-020-00199-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2019] [Accepted: 04/13/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Chloroplast transformation has many potential advantages for the production of recombinant proteins in plants. However, it has been reported that chloroplast expression of many proteins, such as human epidermal growth factor (hEGF), results hindered by post-transcriptional mechanisms. hEGF degradation has been related to the redox potential of the stroma and protein misfolding. To solve this problem, we proposed the redirection of hEGF into the thylakoid lumen where the environment could improve disulfide bonds formation stabilizing the functional conformation of the protein. We generated transplastomic tobacco plants targeting hEGF protein to the thylakoid lumen by adding a transit peptide (Str). Following this approach, we could detect thylakoid lumen-targeted hEGF by western blotting while stromal accumulation of hEGF remained undetectable. Southern blot analysis confirmed the integration of the transgene through homologous recombination into the plastome. Northern blot analysis showed similar levels of egf transcripts in the EGF and StrEGF lines. These results suggest that higher stability of the hEGF peptide in the thylakoid lumen is the primary cause of the increased accumulation of the recombinant protein observed in StrEGF lines. They also highlight the necessity of exploring different sub-organellar destinations to improve the accumulation levels of a specific recombinant protein in plastids.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mauro M Morgenfeld
- Instituto de Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr, Héctor Torres" (INGEBI-CONICET), Vuelta de Obligado 2490, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular (FCEN-UBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Catalina F Vater
- Instituto de Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr, Héctor Torres" (INGEBI-CONICET), Vuelta de Obligado 2490, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - E Federico Alfano
- Instituto de Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr, Héctor Torres" (INGEBI-CONICET), Vuelta de Obligado 2490, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Noelia A Boccardo
- Instituto de Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr, Héctor Torres" (INGEBI-CONICET), Vuelta de Obligado 2490, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Fernando F Bravo-Almonacid
- Instituto de Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr, Héctor Torres" (INGEBI-CONICET), Vuelta de Obligado 2490, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Bernal, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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Saba K, Gottschamel J, Younus I, Syed T, Gull K, Lössl AG, Mirza B, Waheed MT. Chloroplast-based inducible expression of ESAT-6 antigen for development of a plant-based vaccine against tuberculosis. J Biotechnol 2019; 305:1-10. [PMID: 31454508 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiotec.2019.08.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2019] [Accepted: 08/23/2019] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes tuberculosis in humans. The major disease burden of tuberculosis lies in developing countries. Lack of an effective vaccine for adults is one of the major hurdles for controlling this deadly disease. In the present study, 6 kDa early secretory antigenic target (ESAT-6) of M. tuberculosis was inducibly expressed in chloroplasts of Nicotiana tabacum. The expression of ESAT-6 in chloroplasts was controlled by T7 promoter that was activated by nuclear-generated signal peptide. Tobacco plants, containing nuclear component, were transformed via biolistic bombardment with pEXP-T7-ESAT-6 obtained by Gateway® cloning. Transformation and homoplasmic status of transplastomic plants was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction and Southern blotting. Plants were induced for protein expression by spraying with 5% ethanol for 1 day, 3 days, 7 days and 10 days. ESAT-6 protein was detected by immunoblot analysis and maximum protein was obtained for 10 days induced plants that was estimated to accumulate up to 1.2% of total soluble fraction of protein. Transplastomic plants showed completely normal morphology. Transplastomic and untransformed plants became slightly chlorotic upon prolonged exposure to ethanol until 10 days. Taken together, this data could help in the development of an antigen-based subunit vaccine against tuberculosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kiran Saba
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, 45320, Islamabad, Pakistan
| | - Johanna Gottschamel
- University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Gregor-Mendel-Straße 33, 1180, Vienna, Austria
| | - Iqra Younus
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, 45320, Islamabad, Pakistan
| | - Tahira Syed
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, 45320, Islamabad, Pakistan
| | - Kehkshan Gull
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, 45320, Islamabad, Pakistan
| | - Andreas Günter Lössl
- University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Gregor-Mendel-Straße 33, 1180, Vienna, Austria
| | - Bushra Mirza
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, 45320, Islamabad, Pakistan
| | - Mohammad Tahir Waheed
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, 45320, Islamabad, Pakistan.
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Gottschamel J, Lössl A, Ruf S, Wang Y, Skaugen M, Bock R, Clarke JL. Production of dengue virus envelope protein domain III-based antigens in tobacco chloroplasts using inducible and constitutive expression systems. PLANT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2016; 91:497-512. [PMID: 27116001 DOI: 10.1007/s11103-016-0484-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2016] [Accepted: 04/17/2016] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Dengue fever is a disease in many parts of the tropics and subtropics and about half the world's population is at risk of infection according to the World Health Organization. Dengue is caused by any of the four related dengue virus serotypes DEN-1, -2, -3 and -4, which are transmitted to people by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Currently there is only one vaccine (Dengvaxia(®)) available (limited to a few countries) on the market since 2015 after half a century's intensive efforts. Affordable and accessible vaccines against dengue are hence still urgently needed. The dengue envelop protein domain III (EDIII), which is capable of eliciting serotype-specific neutralizing antibodies, has become the focus for subunit vaccine development. To contribute to the development of an accessible and affordable dengue vaccine, in the current study we have used plant-based vaccine production systems to generate a dengue subunit vaccine candidate in tobacco. Chloroplast genome engineering was applied to express serotype-specific recombinant EDIII proteins in tobacco chloroplasts using both constitutive and ethanol-inducible expression systems. Expression of a tetravalent antigen fusion construct combining EDIII polypeptides from all four serotypes was also attempted. Transplastomic EDIII-expressing tobacco lines were obtained and homoplasmy was verified by Southern blot analysis. Northern blot analyses showed expression of EDIII antigen-encoding genes. EDIII protein accumulation levels varied for the different recombinant EDIII proteins and the different expression systems, and reached between 0.8 and 1.6 % of total cellular protein. Our study demonstrates the suitability of the chloroplast compartment as a production site for an EDIII-based vaccine candidate against dengue fever and presents a Gateway(®) plastid transformation vector for inducible transgene expression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johanna Gottschamel
- NIBIO-Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, P.O. Box 115, 1431, Ås, Norway
- BOKU-University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Gregor-Mendel-Straße 33, 1180, Vienna, Austria
| | - Andreas Lössl
- BOKU-University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Gregor-Mendel-Straße 33, 1180, Vienna, Austria
| | - Stephanie Ruf
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Mühlenberg 1, 14476, Potsdam-Golm, Germany
| | - Yanliang Wang
- NIBIO-Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, P.O. Box 115, 1431, Ås, Norway
| | | | - Ralph Bock
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Mühlenberg 1, 14476, Potsdam-Golm, Germany.
| | - Jihong Liu Clarke
- NIBIO-Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, P.O. Box 115, 1431, Ås, Norway.
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