Production of recombinant proteins in seed coats of oil seed crops

加拿大是两种关键的油料作物油菜籽和亚麻籽的世界领头羊。尽管这两种作物对加拿大经济做出了重大贡献，但它们的加工显示出对生物材料的次优利用：通过粉碎种子来生产石油，而剩余的种壳主要作为废物处理。我们建议通过在种皮表皮细胞中生产新的生物制品，将这些废弃的外壳转化为有价值的副产品，从而提高这些关键油料作物的经济价值。这些粘液分泌细胞(MSCs)产生大量的果胶粘液，水化后释放出来，使这些细胞成为很好的生物工厂，很容易从其中分离出新产品。为了利用这些生物工厂，我们将首先测试和优化针对拟南芥MSCs的铬蛋白靶向，然后分别与性能植物和加拿大农业食品公司合作在油菜籽和亚麻籽中表达这些蛋白。这些显色蛋白结构将直接作为一个容易看到的标记用于检测非转基因批中转基因种子的不定存在，这是一个重要的生物安全问题。我们的实验将包括种皮特异性启动子的鉴定和构建，这些启动子将作为研究社区的资源，用于组织特异性表达和种皮内产物的遏制。我们的工作将支持生物经济和加拿大目前的研究重点，为关键的生物精炼作物生产新的副产品提供平台。最后，学术、工业和政府研究实验室之间的这种合作将导致培训能够通过在研究、工业或公共政策领域的工作为生物经济做出重大贡献的人员。

Canada is a world leader in the production of the two key oilseed crops Canola and linseed flax. Despite their significant contributions to the Canadian economy, the processing of both crops demonstrates sub-optimal use of the biological material: oil is produced through the crushing of seeds with the remaining seed hulls being largely disposed of as waste by-products. We propose to enhance the economic value of these key oilseed crops by converting these waste hulls to valuable co-products through the production of novel bioproducts in the seed coat epidermal ceils. These mucilage secretory cells (MSCs) produce massive quantities of pectinaceous mucilage that is released following hydration, making these cells excellent biofactories from which novel products can be easily isolated. In order to harness these biofactories, we will first test and optimize chromoprotein targeting to the MSCs in Arabidopsis, then express the proteins in Canola and linseed flax in collaboration with Performance Plants and Agriculture and Agri-Foods Canada, respectively. These chromoprotein constructs will have direct application as an easily visible marker for detecing adventitious presence of transgenic seeds in non-transgenic lots, an important biosafety concern. Our experiments will include the identification and construction of seed coat-specific promoters that will serve as a resource for the research community for tissue-specific expression and containment of products within the seed coat. Our work will support the bioeconomy and Canada's current research priorities through providing a platform for the production of novel co-products in key biorefinery crops. Finally, this collaboration between academic, industrial and government research laboratories will lead to the training of personnel who will be well-poised to make significant contributions to the bioeconomy through the pursuit of jobs in research, industry or public policy.