Production of edible vaccine against pandemic strains of Influenza in tomato fruits.

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25660287
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Applied molecular and cellular biology
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: ONO Michiyuki 筑波大学, 生命環境系, 准教授 (50201405)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TAKEUCHI Kaoru 筑波大学, 医学医療系, 准教授 (00192162) ; KITAMURA Yutaka 筑波大学, 生命環境系, 教授 (20246672) ; MORIKAWA Kazuya 筑波大学, 医学医療系, 准教授 (90361328)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): YASUTOMI Yasuhiro 国立研究開発法人医薬基盤・健康・栄養研究所, 霊長類医科学研究センター, センター長 (90281724)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 遺伝子組換え作物 / トマト / 食べるワクチン / 新型インフルエンザ / E型肝炎ウイルス / ウイルス様粒子 / 特定網室 / マイクロトム

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Virus-like particle (VLP) is a self-assembled capsid protein of virus and the best candidate of edible vaccine, because VLP is resistant to digestion and can be targeted to the immune system of intestine. We made transgenic tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum cv. Micro-Tom x Aichi-First) expressing capsid protein of Human Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) fused with the M2 universal epitope of Influenza Virus that is though to be valid for pandemic strains. We cultivated these transgenic tomato plants in the special-netted greenhouse following the regulations of the use of living modified organisms and obtained enough amounts of fruits for further investigations.

Free Research Field

植物生理、植物バイオテクノロジー、遺伝子リテラシー教育