Lanfranco Luisa
Department of Plant Biology, University of Turin, Viale P.A. Mattioli 25, 10125 Turin, Italy.
Riv Biol. 2003 Jan-Apr;96(1):31-54.
Plant transformation has had a deep impact on several aspects of basic and applied research. Genetic transformation has offered new opportunities compared to traditional breeding practises since it allows the integration into a host genome of specific sequences leading to a strong reduction of the casualness of gene transfer. One of the first target areas was plant protection against pests, pathogens and environmental stresses while the recent plant engineering programs are aimed at increasing food quality, in particular at increasing nutritional characteristics of food crops. Moreover, transgenic plants, tissue or cell cultures represent an attractive biological system for producing heterologous proteins since they offer economic and qualitative benefits. High yield production can be obtained and large-scale commercial production will take advantage of the existing infrastructure for crop cultivation, processing and storage. There are also qualitative benefits since protein synthesis secretion and post-translational modifications are similar in plants and animal cells. There are no human viral pathogens harboured by plants: thus, especially for pharmaceuticals, plants represent the safer production system. Plant transformation has become an essential instrument also for basic research, in particular for the functional characterisation of genes identified by sequencing of whole genomes. Large collections of insertion mutants have been obtained in the model plant Arabidopsis to provide a high level of genome saturation that means 95% chance of inactivating any gene at least once. To instil greater public confidence in modern plant biotechnology recent advances have already been made to overcome the potential risks for human health and environment.
植物转化在基础研究和应用研究的多个方面都产生了深远影响。与传统育种方法相比，基因转化提供了新的机遇，因为它能使特定序列整合到宿主基因组中，从而大大降低基因转移的偶然性。最初的目标领域之一是植物对害虫、病原体和环境胁迫的防护，而近期的植物工程计划则旨在提高食品质量，特别是增强粮食作物的营养特性。此外，转基因植物、组织或细胞培养物是生产异源蛋白的理想生物系统，因为它们具有经济和质量方面的优势。可以实现高产，大规模商业生产将利用现有的作物种植、加工和储存基础设施。在质量方面也有优势，因为植物和动物细胞中的蛋白质合成、分泌和翻译后修饰相似。植物不会携带人类病毒病原体：因此，特别是对于药物而言，植物是更安全的生产系统。植物转化也已成为基础研究的重要工具，尤其是用于对通过全基因组测序鉴定的基因进行功能表征。在模式植物拟南芥中已获得大量插入突变体，以实现高水平的基因组饱和，这意味着有95%的机会使任何基因至少失活一次。为了让公众对现代植物生物技术更有信心，已经取得了一些最新进展来克服对人类健康和环境的潜在风险。
