Patent ID: 6503732
Filing Date: 2003-01-07
Classification: A61K,C07K,C12N,Y10S

Abstract:
A method for producing at least one heterologous peptide in a plant comprising the steps of:a) infecting a tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) host plant with a modified infectious clone of TMV wherein the wild type coat protein (CP) or movement protein (MP) gene is replaced with a nuclear inclusion protease (NIa) expression cassette comprising: 1) a nucleotide sequence encoding a tobacco etch virus (TEV) nuclear inclusion protein and flanking self-cleavage sequences therefor; 2) restriction endonuclease sites flanking the self-cleavage sequences; and 3) a nucleotide sequence encoding a heterologous peptide inserted in frame into the restriction sites flanking the self-cleavage sites; b) culturing the plant under conditions to foster plant growth; and c) recovering the heterologous peptide from the leaves of the plant.