Transgenic tomatoes express an antigenic polypeptide containing epitopes of the diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus exotoxins, encoded by a synthetic gene
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A current priority of vaccinology is the development of multicomponent vaccines that protect against several pathogens. The diphtheria-pertussis- tetanus (DPT) vaccine prevents the symptoms of three serious and often fatal diseases due to the exotoxins produced by Corynebacterium diphteriae, Bordetella pertussis and Clostridium tetani. We are attempting to develop an edible DPT multicomponent vaccine in plants, based on the fusion of protective exotoxin epitopes encoded by synthetic genes. By means of Agrobacterium mediated transformation we generated transgenic tomatoes with a plant-optimised synthetic gene encoding a novel polypeptide containing two adjuvant and six DPT immunoprotective exotoxin epitopes joined by peptide linkers. In transformed tomato plants, integration of the synthetic DPT (sDPT) gene detected by PCR was confirmed by Southern blot, and specific transcripts of the expected molecular size were detected by RT-PCR. Expression of the putative polypeptide encoded by the sDPT gene was detected by immunoassay with specific antibodies to the diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus exotoxins. The sDPT gene is therefore integrated, transcribed and translated as the expected recombinant sDPT multiepitope polypeptide in transgenic tomatoes that constitute a potential edible vaccine. © 2007 Springer-Verlag.
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Diphtheria; Synthetic genes; Tetanus; Transgenic plants; Whooping cough Biosynthesis; Enzyme kinetics; Gene expression; Pathogens; Polypeptides; Vaccines; Corynebacterium diphteriae; Synthetic genes; Transgenic plants; Whooping cough; Fruits; Agrobacterium; Bordetella pertussis; Clostridium tetani; Corynebacterium; Lycopersicon esculentum; Rhizobium; bacterial antigen; diphtheria toxin; epitope; pertussis toxin; tetanus toxin; amino acid sequence; article; chemistry; gene expression regulation; genetics; metabolism; molecular cloning; tomato; transgenic plant; Amino Acid Sequence; Antigens, Bacterial; Cloning, Molecular; Diphtheria Toxin; Epitopes; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Lycopersicon esculentum; Pertussis Toxin; Plants, Genetically Modified; Tetanus Toxin
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