Production of recombinant proteins in seed coats of oil seed crops

加拿大是世界上两种主要油料作物油菜籽和亚麻籽生产的领导者。尽管这两种作物对加拿大经济作出了重大贡献，但它们的加工表明对生物材料的利用并不理想：石油是通过压碎种子生产的，剩余的种子壳大部分作为废弃的副产品处理掉。我们建议通过在种皮表皮细胞中生产新的生物产品将这些废弃的外壳转化为有价值的副产品来提高这些关键油籽作物的经济价值。这些粘液分泌细胞（MSC）产生大量的果胶粘液，这些粘液在水合后释放，使这些细胞成为优秀的生物工厂，可以很容易地分离出新的产品。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中MSC的色蛋白，然后分别与Performance Plants and Agriculture和Agri-Foods Canada合作，在Canola和亚麻籽中表达蛋白质。这些色蛋白构建体将作为一种容易可见的标记物直接应用于检测非转基因批次中转基因种子的偶然存在，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品的遏制。我们的工作将支持生物经济和加拿大目前的研究重点，通过提供一个平台，在关键的生物精炼作物生产新的副产品。最后，学术，工业和政府研究实验室之间的这种合作将导致人员的培训，这些人员将通过在研究，工业或公共政策方面的工作，为生物经济做出重大贡献。

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.