PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF BIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE PEPTIDE VIA THE EXPRESSION OF MODIFIED STORAGE SEED PROTEIN GENES IN TRANSGENIC PLANTS

摘要

This invention relates to a process for producing a polypeptide of interest, which comprises cultivating a plant whose genomic DNA contains or has been made to contain a nucleic acid sequence under the control of a promoter, which nucleic acid sequence is normally transcribed into a mRNA coding for a precursor of a 2Sstorage protein, yet is modified in one of its nonessential regions either by the insertion therein of a heterologous nucleic acid insert encoding said polypeptide of interest or by substitution of said insert for part of said non-essential region, wherein that insert and the parts of the nucleic acid sequence which surround it form an open-reading frame which can be transcribed into an mRNA encoding a chimeric polypeptide including said polypeptide of interest surrounded by parts of said 2S-storage protein precursor; and causing said chimeric polypeptide to be expressed under the control of said promoter.