Effect of an Endoplasmic Reticulum Retention Signal Tagged to Human Anti-Rabies mAb SO57 on Its Expression in Arabidopsis and Plant Growth
Ilchan Song, Young Koung Lee, Jin Wook Kim, Seung-Won Lee, Se Ra Park, Hae Kyung Lee, Soyeon Oh, Kinarm Ko, Mi Kyung Kim, Soon Ju Park, Dae Heon Kim, Moon‐Soo Kim, Do Sun Kim, Kisung Ko
Abstract
to investigate the effect of KDEL on plant growth. The germination rate did not significantly differ between plants expressing mAb SO57 without KDEL (SO plant) and mAb SO57 with KDEL (SOK plant). The primary roots of SOK agar media grown plants were slightly shorter than those of SO plants. Transcriptomic analysis showed that expression of all 11 ER stress-related genes were not significantly changed in SOK plants relative to SO plants. SOK plants showed approximately three-fold higher mAb expression levels than those of SO plants. Consequently, the purified mAb amount per unit of SOK plant biomass was approximately three times higher than that of SO plants. A neutralization assay revealed that both plants exhibited efficient rapid fluorescent focus inhibition test values against the rabies virus relative to commercially available human rabies immunoglobulins. KDEL did not upregulate ER stress-related genes; therefore, the enhanced production of the mAb did not affect plant growth. Thus, KDEL fusion is recommended for enhancing mAb production in plant systems.