Article Flashcards
What does pharming involve?
Process of genetically engineering plants so they can make certain types of therapeutically important proteins and associated molecules like peptides and secondary metabolites
Why is tobacco a good choice for pharming?
Easily transformed, makes abundant tissues, survives well in greenhouses
What are the advantages of using rice an flax?
Self pollinated, gene-flow issues are avoided
Advantages of using grain crops for pharming
High heat stability from protein products targeted to the endosperm if cereals
Example if non-crop plant used for pharming
Duckweed
What is duckweed useful for?
Production of biopharmaceuticals
What can duckweed be cultivated in?
Bioreactors, secrete transformed proteins into growth medium
What advantages does it have compared to crop plants?
Substantially reduce burden of protein purification in preparing recombinant proteins for medical uses
Advantages of using plants for pharming
Plants ≠ pathogens that might be harmful to human health
No proteins in plants that are similar to human proteins
Sufficiently closely related to animals & humans, means able to correctly process both A & H proteins
How could pharmaceutical crops benefit developing countries?
Pharm crops = affordable so price of vaccines would be lower meaning more people able to afford them
Why are activists worried about plants that produce drugs?
Once production begins, altered plants might find their way into food supply or cross-pollinate with conventional (non-GM) crops
Predicted value of pharming worldwide by 2020
$100 billion
