Frontiers in Plant Science (Apr 2020)

High-Yield Production of the Major Birch Pollen Allergen Bet v 1 With Allergen Immunogenicity in Nicotiana benthamiana

  • Yuki Yamada,
  • Masanori Kidoguchi,
  • Masanori Kidoguchi,
  • Akira Yata,
  • Takako Nakamura,
  • Hideki Yoshida,
  • Hideki Yoshida,
  • Yukinori Kato,
  • Hironori Masuko,
  • Nobuyuki Hizawa,
  • Shigeharu Fujieda,
  • Emiko Noguchi,
  • Kenji Miura,
  • Kenji Miura

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.00344
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11

Abstract

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Type I allergy is an immunological disorder triggered by allergens and causes significant health problems. The major allergen of birch pollen is Bet v 1, which belongs to the pathogen-related protein 10 (PR-10) family. Here, we established a rapid and robust method for the production of Bet v 1 in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves, with binding activity to allergic patients’ IgE. The Bet v 1 allergen was expressed in N. benthamiana using a strong agroinfiltration-based transient protein expression system, which consists of a deconstructed geminiviral vector system with a double terminator. Five days post-infiltration, the allergen concentration in N. benthamiana leaves was 1.2 mg/g of fresh mass, being this the maximum yield of Bet v 1 in plants reported up to now. A part of plant-derived Bet v 1 was glycosylated. Bet v 1 purified from N. benthamiana or Brevibacillus brevis was used to carry out enzyme-linked immunoassays; both recombinant allergens were found to have comparable binding properties to the IgE of allergic patients. These results suggest that our plant expression system allows rapid and robust production of the allergen, which keeps the immunogenicity.

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