A light emitting plant can include a long duration emissive material.

Protein replacement therapy for patients with haemophilia or other inherited protein deficiencies is often complicated by pathogenic antibody responses, including antibodies that neutralize the therapeutic protein or that predispose to potentially life-threatening anaphylactic reactions by formation of IgE. Using murine and canine haemophilia as a model, we have developed a prophylactic protocol. Against such responses that is non-invasive and does not include immune suppression mor genetic manipulation of the patient's cells. Oral delivery of a coagulation factor expressed in chloroplasts, bioencapsulated in plant cells, effectively blocked formation of inhibitory antibodies in protein replacement therapy. Inhibitor titers were mostly undetectable and up to 100-fold lower in treated subjects when compared to controls. Moreover, this treatment eliminated fatal anaphylactic reactions that occurred after four to six exposures to intravenous coagulation factor protein. Finally, the method can effectively be used to reverse or reduce undesirable pre-existing inhibitor titers.

Disclosed herein are compositions for conferring oral tolerance in mammals to autoimmune disorders such as diabetes, as well as vectors and methods for plastid transformation of plants to produce a CTB-Pins protein for oral delivery. The invention also extends to the transformed plants, plant parts, and seeds and progeny thereof. The invention is applicable to plants edible without torrefying. Exemplified herein is the stable transformation of Lactuca sativa such that CTB-Pins is expressed.

The object of the present invention is to provide a method of introducing a nucleic acid into plant cells, which is simple and widely applicable to various types of plant cells and nucleic acids. The present invention relates to a method of introducing a nucleic acid into a target plant cell, comprising a step of forming a complex by bringing a carrier peptide, wherein the carrier peptide comprises a cell-penetrating sequence and a polycationic sequence, into contact with a nucleic acid and a step of bringing the obtained complex into contact with a target plant cell.

Disclosed herein are materials useful for degrading plant biomass material. In exemplary embodiments, the plant material comprises one or more enzymes that are expressed in plants and/or bacteria. Specifically exemplified herein are plant degrading enzymes expressed in chloroplasts. The chloroplast expressed enzymes may be provided as cocktails for use in conjunction with conventional methods of converting biomass into biofuels, such as cellulosic ethanol.

The present invention relates to recombinant protein expression in algal cells. In particular, the present invention provides methods for making recombinant polypeptides in association with such chloroplast-associated oil body proteins such as caleosin or fragments thereof. In certain embodiments, the methods involve transformation of algal cells with a nucleic acid encoding a fusion protein comprising an oil body protein and a protein of interest and subsequently growing the algal cells under non-homeostatic conditions to induce accumulation of the fusion polypeptide in the chloroplast of said algal cells.

This disclosure concerns compositions and methods for targeting peptides, polypeptides, and proteins to plastids of plastid-containing cells. In some embodiments, the disclosure concerns chloroplast transit peptides that may direct a polypeptide to a plastid, and nucleic acid molecules encoding the same. In some embodiments, the disclosure concerns methods for producing a transgenic plant material (e.g., a transgenic plant) comprising a chloroplast transit peptide, as well as plant materials produced by such methods, and plant commodity products produced therefrom.

This disclosure pertains to a novel platform for genetic engineering of chloroplasts. The disclosure provides episomal DNA vectors containing a chloroplast origin of replication. These vectors remain extra-plastomic and sustainably and autonomously replicate in chloroplasts of the plant cells transformed with the vectors and in the plants regenerated from the transformed plant cells. The episomal DNA vectors do not contain any sequence that shares sequence homology with the plastome DNA and, thus, do not get integrated into the plastome DNA. The vectors can also comprise one or more genes of interest that confer desirable characteristics to the transformed plant cells. The disclosure also provides methods of transforming plant cells with the episomal DNA vectors and regenerating from the transformed plant cells plants having desirable characteristics. The vectors and methods disclosed herein provide a significant advancement in speed, flexibility, and prospects of introducing genes into plant cells for effective metabolic engineering.

The present invention provides a recombinant DNA molecule encoding a fusion protein, comprising a first DNA sequence encoding a high-efficiency transit peptide operably linked to a second DNA sequence encoding a passenger protein, wherein the high-efficiency transit peptide is selected from the group consisting of transit peptides of the precursors of translocon at the inner envelope membrane of chloroplasts 40 kD (prTic40), chaperonin 10-2 (prCpn10-2), Fibrillin 1B (prFibrillin), ATP sulfurylase 1 (prAPS1), ATP sulfurylase 3 (prAPS3), 5-adenylylsulfate reductase 3 (prAPR3), stromal ascorbate peroxidase (prsAPX), prTic40-E2A (a prTic40 variant), prCpn10-1-C7C37S (a chaperonin 10-1 variant), a functional fragment of any of the transit peptides and an equivalent thereof. And the present invention also provides a method of high efficiency delivery of a protein into plastids using the high-efficiency transit peptides.

The present invention provides a recombinant DNA molecule encoding a fusion protein, comprising a first DNA sequence encoding a high-efficiency transit peptide operably linked to a second DNA sequence encoding a passenger protein, wherein the high-efficiency transit peptide is selected from the group consisting of transit peptides of the precursors of translocon at the inner envelope membrane of chloroplasts 40 kD (prTic40), chaperonin 10-2 (prCpn10-2), Fibrillin 1B (prFibrillin), ATP sulfurylase 1 (prAPS1), ATP sulfurylase 3 (prAPS3), 5-adenylylsulfate reductase 3 (prAPR3), stromal ascorbate peroxidase (prsAPX), prTic40-E2A (a prTic40 variant), prCpn10-1-C7C37S (a chaperonin 10-1 variant), a functional fragment of any of the transit peptides and an equivalent thereof. And the present invention also provides a method of high efficiency delivery of a protein into plastids using the high-efficiency transit peptides.