An alternative to transgenic plants for vaccine production
An alternative to the production of transgenic plants for vaccine production is to produce a chimeric viral coat protein gene and introduce it into a plant for transient expression. This strategy will require inoculation of host plants ­with viral vectors for their transient expression, which cannot be tissue specific as in case of transgenic plants. This approach has, however, been successfully utilized for the following antigen capsule fusion proteins: (i) malarial epitope with TMV capsid proteins; (ii) zona­pellucida with TMV capsid protein and (iii) rhinovirus-l4 and HIV-l with cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) capsid protein. A comparison of the steps involved in the two approaches of vaccine production involving transgenic plants and transient expression of a gene