SummaryEdible fruits are inexpensive biofactories for human health-promoting molecules that can be ingested as crude extracts or partially purified formulations. We show here the production of a model human antibody for passive protection against the enteric pathogen rotavirus in transgenically labelled tomato fruits. Transgenic tomato plants expressing a recombinant human immunoglobulin A (hIgA_2A1) selected against the VP8* peptide of rotavirus SA11 strain were obtained. The amount of hIgA_2A1 protein reached 3.6 ± 0.8% of the total soluble protein in the fruit of the transformed plants. Minimally processed fruit-derived products suitable for oral intake showed anti-VP8* binding activity and strongly inhibited virus infection in an in vitro virus neutralization assay. In order to make tomatoes expressing hIgA_2A1 easily distinguishable from wild-type tomatoes, lines expressing hIgA_2A1 transgenes were sexually crossed with a transgenic tomato line expressing the genes encoding Antirrhinum majus Rosea1 and Delila transcription factors, which confer purple colour to the fruit. Consequently, transgenically labelled purple tomato fruits expressing hIgA_2A1 have been developed. The resulting purple-coloured extracts from these fruits contain high levels of recombinant antirotavirus neutralizing human IgA in combination with increased amounts of health-promoting anthocyanins.

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Combining biotechnology and encapsulation by spray-drying is possible to obtain microorganisms-based products in powder format without losing viability. A methodology based on the improvement of the thermal stress resistance of selected strains of Lactobacillus sp. and subsequent culture stabilization by spray-drying by optimizing the process parameters and using thermal protectant materials has been developed. The results obtained showed that the final product kept the viability of the initial culture in addition to be a solid, powdery and ease-to-handle product.