“…Potentially higher volume needs, due to newer indications (Mehta and Hindmarsh, 2002) and alternative delivery systems (Lee et al, 1997;Leone-Bay et al, 1996), have led to the investigation of hGH production in other hosts, including other bacteria (Franchi et al, 1991), fungi (Ecamilla-Treviño et al, 2000), milk from transgenic mammals (Lubon and Palmer, 2000), and tobacco plants (Leite et al, 2000;Staub et al, 2000). However, most hGH biochemical characterization data are from humans (Baumann, 1991) or E. coli (Chang et al, 1987;Chang et al, 1989), typically described as a single chain of 191 amino acids, an N-terminus of Phe-Pro-Thr formed after removal of the signal peptide during secretion, and two intrachain disulfide bonds. Natural circulating variants include dimers, internal truncations from alternative splicing, protein cleavage products, N-terminal acylation, and deamidations (Chang et al, 1987).…”