Hefferon Kathleen L
Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3B2.
Recent Pat Biotechnol. 2012 Aug;6(2):97-105. doi: 10.2174/187220812801784704.
Agricultural biotechnology offers a robust series of tools by which to address global concerns such as food security, crop protection, and fuel/energy requirements. A number of advances made recently in plant molecular biology also have resulted in applications which largely focus on improving global human health. This review describes some of the recent innovations in plant biotechnology that have come to the forefront over the past year. Included are novel techniques by which plants can be improved as platforms for biopharmaceutical protein production, a growing field also referred to as 'molecular pharming'. The metabolic engineering of plants to produce compounds which have additional nutritional benefits is also outlined. The review concludes with a discussion of the future impact that these innovations may have both on global health and on the development of our future intellectual property landscape.
农业生物技术提供了一系列强大的工具，可用于解决诸如粮食安全、作物保护和燃料/能源需求等全球关注的问题。植物分子生物学最近取得的一些进展也带来了一些应用，这些应用主要集中在改善全球人类健康方面。本综述描述了过去一年中植物生物技术领域一些最新的创新成果。其中包括一些新技术，通过这些技术可以将植物改进为生物制药蛋白质生产平台，这一不断发展的领域也被称为“分子农业”。还概述了植物代谢工程，以生产具有额外营养益处的化合物。综述最后讨论了这些创新可能对全球健康以及未来知识产权格局的发展产生的影响。
