Wiley, FEBS Letters, 1-2(488), p. 13-17, 2001
DOI: 10.1016/s0014-5793(00)02405-4
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A high-yield production of a peptide vaccine in transgenic plants is described here. A 21-mer peptide, which confers protection to dogs against challenge with virulent canine parvovirus, has been expressed in transgenic plants as an amino-terminal translational fusion with the GUS gene. Transformants were selected on the basis of their GUS activities, showing expression levels of the recombinant protein up to 3% of the total leaf soluble protein, a production yield comparable to that obtained with the same epitope expressed by chimeric plant viruses. The immunogenicity of the plant-derived peptide was demonstrated in mice immunized either intraperitoneally or orally with transgenic plant extracts, providing the suitability of the GUS fusions approach for low-cost production of peptide vaccines.