Background: Protein bodies (PBs) are natural endoplasmic reticulum (ER) or vacuole plantderived organelles that stably accumulate large amounts of storage proteins in seeds. The prolinerich N-terminal domain derived from the maize storage protein γ zein (Zera) is sufficient to induce PBs in non-seed tissues of Arabidopsis and tobacco. This Zera property opens up new routes for high-level accumulation of recombinant proteins by fusion of Zera with proteins of interest. In this work we extend the advantageous properties of plant seed PBs to recombinant protein production in useful non-plant eukaryotic hosts including cultured fungal, mammalian and insect cells.

Pollination of many flowers leads to an increase in ethylene synthesis and flower senescence. We have investigated the regulation of pollination-induced ethylene synthesis in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) using flowers of the dialytic (dl) mutant, in which pollination can be manipulated experimentally, with the aim of developing a model system to study tomato flower senescence. Ethylene synthesis increased rapidly in dl pistils following pollination, leading to accelerated petal senescence, and was delayed in ethylene-insensitive Never-ripe (Nr) pistils. However, Nr pistils eventually produced more ethylene than dl pistils, suggesting the presence of negative feedback regulation of ethylene synthesis following pollination. LEACS1A expression correlated well with increased ethylene production in pollinated dl pistils, and expression in Nr revealed that regulation is via an ethylene-independent mechanism. In contrast, the induction of the 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid oxidases, LEACO1 and LEACO3, following pollination is ethylene dependent. In addition, the expression profiles of ACS and ACO genes were determined during petal senescence and a hypothesis proposed that translocated 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid from the pistil may be important for regulating the initial burst of ethylene production during petal senescence. These results are discussed and differences between tomato and the ornamental species previously studied are highlighted.Pollination leads to the onset of fruit development and the senescence of floral organs that become obsolete after pollination has occurred. In many flowers, the initial response to pollination is an early increase in ethylene production by the stigma that is often followed by increased ethylene production from ovaries and petals. The pollination-induced ethylene produced by different floral organs is responsible for coordinating pollination-associated events such as ovary growth and senescence of the perianth (for review, see Larsen et al., 1993;Woltering et al., 1994). Ethylene is synthesized by two enzymes: 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) synthase (ACS), which catalyzes the conversion of S-adenosyl-l-Met into ACC, and ACC oxidase (ACO), which converts ACC into ethylene (Kende, 1993). These enzymes are encoded by multigene families in all species examined (Zarembinski and Theologis, 1994). The effect of pollination on the expression pattern of these genes has been studied in the ornamental species carnation, geranium, petunia, and orchid. Increased ethylene synthesis following pollination of these flowers is accompanied by increased ACS and ACO gene expression and elevated enzyme activities (Woodson et al

The N-terminal proline-rich domain of ␥-zein (Zera) plays an important role in protein body (PB) formation not only in the original host (maize seeds) but in a broad spectrum of eukaryotic cells. However, the elements within the Zera sequence that are involved in the biogenesis of PBs have not been clearly identified. Here, we focused on amino acid sequence motifs that could be involved in Zera oligomerization, leading to PB-like structures in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves. By using fusions of Zera with fluorescent proteins, we found that the lack of the repeat region (PPPVHL) 8 of Zera resulted in the secretion of the fusion protein but that this repeat by itself did not form PBs. Although the repeat region containing eight units was the most efficient for Zera self-assembly, shorter repeats of 4 -6 units still formed small multimers. Based on site-directed mutagenesis of Zera cysteine residues and analysis of multimer formation, we conclude that the two N-terminal Cys residues of Zera (Cys 7 and Cys 9 ) are critical for oligomerization. Immunoelectron microscopy and confocal studies on PB development over time revealed that early, small, Zera-derived oligomers were sequestered in buds along the rough ER and that the mature size of the PBs could be attained by both cross-linking of preformed multimers and the incorporation of new chains of Zera fusions synthesized by active membrane-bound ribosomes. Based on these results and on the behavior of the Zera structure determined by molecular dynamics simulation studies, we propose a model of Zera-induced PB biogenesis.The mechanisms by which prolamins, which lack the ER 3 retention (H/K)DEL motif, are retained and assembled in the ER-derived PBs are only partially understood. Different factors act as determinants of PB biogenesis, some of them derived from cis-cargo properties and others with a cellular trans-origin (1). It has been proposed that the physico-chemical properties of prolamins, such as hydrophobicity and disulfide bond formation, promote specific interactions resulting in the formation of large self-assemblies that are responsible for their retention in the ER and PB formation (2-4). These polymers could be excluded because of their size from being carried by the COP II vesicles that transport cargo proteins to the Golgi complex (5). However, the generic COPII vesicles are flexible enough for large cargo loading, including that of procollagen (more than 300 nm in size) (6) and the collagen VII trimer (900 kDa) (7).In maize, four distinct types of prolamins (␣-, ␤-, ␥-, and ␦-zein) coexist in the PBs (8) and play distinct roles in PB formation. Recently, maize storage protein mutants created through RNAi showed that ␥-RNAi maize mutant lines exhibited slightly altered protein body formation and that a more drastic effect was observed in the ␤-␥ combined mutant, where protein bodies showed an irregular shape, particularly in their periphery (9).Various studies on zein accumulation in heterologous expression systems suggest that ␥-zein and ␤-zein mediate t...

Stable accumulation of storage proteins, lipids and carbohydrates is a hallmark of the plant seed, and is a characteristic that is typically deficient in existing platforms for recombinant protein manufacture. One of the biological sequestration mechanisms that facilitate the folding, assembly and stabilization of plant seed storage proteins involve the de novo formation of unique intracellular organelles, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-derived protein bodies (PBs). In cereals, such as maize, PBs are formed directly in the lumen of the ER of endosperm cells and contain zeins, a group of polypeptides, which account for more than half of the total seed protein mass. The 27 kD gamma zein protein localizes to the periphery of the PBs surrounding aggregates of other zeins (including a zein and delta zein). Heterologous expression of gamma zein has been shown to result in the formation of PB-like structures, and the N-terminal proline-rich domain of gamma zein (Zera), containing eight PPPVHL repeats and a Pro-X sequence is by itself capable of directing ER retention and PB formation in non-seed tissues. We present a novel approach to produce recombinant proteins in plants based on the ability of gamma zein-Zera domain to store recombinant proteins inside PBs. Zera domain fused to several proteins, including a enhanced cyan fluorescent protein (ECFP), calcitonin (Ct) and epidermal growth factor (EGF), were cloned into vectors for transient or stable transformation of tobacco plants. In tobacco leaves, we observed the formation of dense, ER-localized structures containing high concentrations of the respective target proteins. The intact synthetic organelles containing Zera fusions were readily isolated from cellular material using density-based separation methods.