3 ms·
Why Tobacco? It's a classic plant model system, and is particularly amenable to transformation. You can do transient assays by loading your construct into agr
by Obi_Juan_Kenobi 7y ago
Why Tobacco?
It's a classic plant model system, and is particularly amenable to transformation. You can do transient assays by loading your construct into agrobacterium, and then simply squirting that onto some leaves. Generally you include some markers that shows you both what tissue is transfected, and also something that indicates whatever activity you're looking for.
With most plants, you have to do tissue culture and transform that material, and then coax that into a viable plant. That gives you a (potentially) stable line, but it's a lot of work. Benthy is quick.
In other words, there is lots of experience with transformation, and being a non-food crop, has fewer regulatory issues.
- thatcat 7y agoTobacco genetic data can be modified via mosaic virus insertion. This method is standard and has been used to develop ebola vaccine as well. This paper mentions tobacco relative Nicotiana benthamiana has a large biomass yield with high density growth - optimal for greenhouse in only a few weeks so it would scale fast. I'm not sure why mosaic virus vs agrobacter is used though? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4744784/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4744784/ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-to-grow-an-ebola-vaccine-with-a-tobacco-plant https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-to-grow-an-ebola-vacci...