Potato expressing human pro-insulin gene has been produced

On Mar 7, 2012 0

ISNA reported that Kimia Kashani M.Sc. of plant biotechnology and breeding from University of Tarbiat Modares under supervision of cooperation of Dr. Mokhtar Jalali studied aberrant organogenesis in potato and the possibility of human pro-insulin gene transfer. She said: "right now 0.7 % of people in Iran are suffering from diabetics and due to increasing rate of diabetics breakout, the demand for this drug will be increased in near future".

She continued recombinant insulin has been produced from many different sources. During last two decade trade systems have been improved and currently it can be produced up to 5 tons insulin hormone per month, but in near future the demand for this hormone will further increase sharply".

Kashani indicated that "currently molecular farming which is referred to as the production of pharmaceutically important proteins and industrial enzymes in plants through genetic engineering, is the method of choice and more scientists are attracted to this technology than before". "Plants have good, safe and economic potential for producing pharmaceutical components and potato is one of these bioreactors"; she continued. She emphasized that potato is a good choice for genetic engineering from technical point of view.

Kashani reported that their group has been able to optimize a reproducible protocol for genetic engineering of potato cultivars Desiree, Marfona and Agria.

According to her report, Kashani Human pro-insulin gene has been transferred to potato using Agrobacterium mediated transformation method. All molecular characterization of the transgenic plant confirmed the integration and high level expression of the human pro-insulin protein in transgenic potato.

Translated by: Arezoo Motaghi

Source: http://isna.ir/isna/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1950329