植物叶绿体基因工程研究进展

Progress in chloroplast transformation in plants

植物叶绿体基因工程与细胞核基因工程相比,具有许多独特的优势,如能够实现外源基因特异整合及高效表达、多基因共表达、外源基因不会随花粉扩散、没有位置效应和基因沉默等。目前已在16种植物中成功获得叶绿体转基因植株,改良了植物的农艺性状,特别是在烟草叶绿体中高效表达了40多种外源蛋白,包括多种抗体和疫苗。尽管如此,这项技术目前尚未用于主要粮食作物的性状改良。本文综述了植物叶绿体基因工程的原理、技术、应用、难点及进展。

Chloroplast transformation in plants has many advantages over nuclear transformation.Proteins in chloroplasts can be expressed at high levels with proper folding and disulfide bonds as the cells of higher plants contain a large number of chloroplast genomes.Multiple genes can be co-expressed in chloroplast genomes.Furthermore,chloroplast genes are inherited in a strictly maternal fashion in most angiosperm plant species,and this minimizes the possibility of out-crossing transgenes to related weeds or species.In addition,gene silencing,position effects and random integration have not been reported in chloroplast transformation.Although chloroplast transformation is very attractive,this technology is not as widely used as nuclear transformation.It has been mostly focused on 16 plants species,especially tobacco in which many proteins has been expressed including vaccines and antibodies.In this review we briefly summarize the rationales,methodologies,applications,bottlenecks and prospects of this promising genetic engineering technology for chloroplasts.