|
| Plant hosts | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|
| Model plants | | |
| Arabidopsis thaliana | Often used for preliminary studies.
A variety of Arabidopsis lines and mutants with accessible genetics information are available.
Small genome size and short life cycle.
Self-pollinating plant that could produce numerous seeds.
Exceptional ease for transformation by Agrobacterium-mediated approach. | Low biomass. |
| Tobacco | Established transformation and expression protocols.
High biomass yield.
Nonfood and nonfeed crop.
Less risk of feed and human food chains contamination.
Low-alkaloid varieties are available, which requires less processing. | Risk of crossing with nontransgenic tobacco in the open field production.
Contain high nicotine and other toxic alkaloids.
Direct consumption not possible. |
|
| Leafy crops | | |
Alfalfa
Clover | Established transformation protocols.
Clonal propagation is possible.
Direct consumption and useful for animal vaccines.
High protein level.
Large dry biomass yield.
Many harvests per year.
Homogenous N-linked glycan structures in alfalfa. |
Risk of outcrossing with nontransgenic plants in the open field production.
Low protein stability.
Perishable tissues and must be processed soon after harvest.
Deep root system in alfalfa makes them difficult for thorough cleaning from the production field. |
| Lettuce | Edible raw and useful for human vaccines.
Fast growing. |
|
| Fruits and root vegetables | | |
| Potato | Established transformation protocols.
Microtuber production is available for quick assay.
Stable storage for longer periods in storage tissues without refrigeration.
Clonal propagation, low risk of outcrossing in the open field production.
Industrial processing of tuber is well established. | Low protein content.
Raw tuber is not palatable, while cooking might cause denaturation of the foreign protein. |
| Tomato | Palatable in raw form.
High biomass yield.
Inherent high level of vitamin A may help in boosting immune responses.
Industrial cultivation and processing are well established. | Low protein content.
Acidic in nature and may be incompatible with some antigens or use for infants.
Spoil readily. |
|
| Cereal and legume seeds | | |
| Maize | Most widely used cereal crop for molecular farming.
Large grain size and high per hectare biomass yield.
In vitro manipulation and transformation of maize are well studied.
Commercial production, processing, and scalability are established. | Cross-pollinating plant.
Concerns for contamination of food maize crops. |
| Rice | High biomass yield.
Commercial production, processing, and scalability are established.
Self-pollinating, reduced risk of illegitimate gene flow due to pollen release. | Longer time-to-product period. |
| Barley | Self-pollinating. | Less widely grown.
Inefficient transformation system. |
Pea
Soybean | Higher protein content than that of the cereals.
Self-pollinating are risk of gene flow contamination are less. | Laborious and inefficient transformation procedures.
Lower annual grain yield and higher production cost compared to maize and rice. |
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