Transplastomic Tobacco for Human Therapeutics
In a study published in March 2000, possibility of the production of low cost proteins of pharmaceutical value through transplastomic plants was also demonstrated. In this study, transplastomic tobacco plants were produced which carried a gene for human somatotropin (hST), that is used for the treatment of hypopituitary dwarfism in children, besides a number of other uses. This study demonstrated for the first time that transplastomic plants can be used,' as another very efficient system for the production of pharmaceuticals in plants, much the same way as transgenic plants are produced for molecular farming due to nuclear transformation.