Plant based production of myoglobin - a novel source of the muscle heme-protein

Abstract

Myoglobin is a heme-protein in the muscle of vertebrates with important functions in the oxygenation of tissues and as a regulator in nitric oxide signaling. Myoglobin from many species is also an important nutritional source of bioavailable iron. in this study, we have successfully produced human myoglobin in the leaves of Nicotiana benthamiana by transient expression using a viral vector delivered by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Analyses confirmed that heme was incorporated and the protein was functional, with observed properties consistent with those of native myoglobins. A relatively high degree of purity could be achieved with low cost methods. the results show the high potential of plants as a production platform for heme proteins, a group of proteins of interest for iron nutrition applications and possible future pharmaceutical development.

Keywords

plant sciences; molecular biology; biotechnology; plant biotechnology

Published in

Scientific Reports
2020, volume: 10, number: 1, article number: 920

SLU Authors

• Carlsson, Magnus

  • Department of Plant Breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Kanagarajan, Selvaraju

  • Department of Plant Breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Zhu, Li-Hua

  • Department of Plant Breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Agricultural Science
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-57565-y

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/105690