PROTEOME ANALYSIS OF RESISTANT PLANTS EXPRESSING ANTIVIRAL ANTIBODIES

Since viral diseases are not sensitive to common chemical treatments of crops, the possibility to obtain self-protecting plants against viral attacks is of critical importance for agronomical applications. Transgenic plants may represent an effective solution but their acceptance is strictly related to the safety of genetically modified products. The insertion into the plant genome of exogenous genes coding for proteins able to confer pathogen resistance might lead to the production of undesired compounds or suppression of endogenous genes. We investigated whether the expression in plant of protective recombinant antibodies may alter the physiological protein profile. Hereby, we analyzed two different transgenic plant lines (Lycopersicon esculentum cv. MicroTom and Nicotiana benthamiana) expressing recombinant antibodies against different plant viruses (cucumber mosaic virus and tomato spotted wilt virus) in different cell compartments. Proteomes of plants expressing antibodies were compared with wild-type counterpart by 2DDIGE (Differential in Gel Electrophoresis, GE Healthcare) technology. Approximately 2000 spots were detected in the 2-DE maps and only 17 proteins resulted differentially expressed in each transgenic plant model analyzed. Most of the proteins identified by combined MALDITOF PMF and LC-ESI-IT-MS/MS analysis were related to photosynthesis and defence activities. The limited variations in both transgenic models, either as number of proteins or changes in expression levels (average ratio ≤2), suggest that the antibody expression does not substantially alter the natural expression profile of these plants. Our results confirm that the expression of antiviral antibody in plants may represent a valid strategy to create plants protected from viral attacks in the respect of human and environment safety.