dc.contributor.author	Verbiest, Leen	en
dc.contributor.committeechair	Cramer, Carole L.	en
dc.contributor.committeemember	Denbow, Cynthia J.	en
dc.contributor.committeemember	Winkel, Brenda S. J.	en
dc.contributor.department	Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science	en
dc.date.accessioned	2014-03-14T20:34:13Z	en
dc.date.adate	2000-04-26	en
dc.date.available	2014-03-14T20:34:13Z	en
dc.date.issued	2000-04-20	en
dc.date.rdate	2001-04-26	en
dc.date.sdate	2000-04-25	en
dc.description.abstract	Today's development of novel vaccines stresses the need for edible vaccines that are inexpensive, easily administered and capable of being stored and transported without refrigeration. Without these characteristics, developing countries find it difficult to adopt vaccination as the central strategy for preventing their most devastating diseases. A promising approach is the production of vaccines in plants we commonly consume. Two major obstacles have been encountered in developing vaccines in plants. First, the expression level of foreign antigens tends to be low and second, co-expression of an adjuvant may be required to facilitate an appropriate immune response. Ricin, a plant toxin that survives the human digestive process, has been proven to stimulate an immune response and could therefore serve as a suitable adjuvant. The long-term goal is to produce a vaccine that protects against the disease entamoebic dysentery. The specific goal of this research was to produce ricin in tobacco as adjuvant for the vaccine. Vectors were constructed that fused the ricin coding sequence to different plant promoters and transgenic tobacco plants were generated by transformation with Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The levels of expression in these transgenic plants were tested using immunoblot assays. Southern blot analysis was performed for the highest expressors of each construct. The enzymatic activity of the tobacco-synthesized ricin was shown using a protein translation inhibition assay. Expression of ricin was also confirmed using transient transformation of hairy root cultures. Future experiments will address the practical use of the tobacco-synthesized ricin as adjuvant, as well as the expression of the ricin B subunit fused to a protective antigen of Entamoeba histolytica in tobacco as edible vaccine.	en
dc.description.degree	Master of Science	en
dc.identifier.other	etd-04252000-14290005	en
dc.identifier.sourceurl	http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-04252000-14290005/	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10919/31887	en
dc.publisher	Virginia Tech	en
dc.relation.haspart	LVtitlepage.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	LVvita.doc.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	LVREFERENCES.doc.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	LVappendix.doc.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	LVlisttables.doc.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	LVch5.doc.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	LVch4.doc.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	LVch3.doc.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	LVch1.doc.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	LVAcknowl.doc.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	LVch2.doc.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	LVch6.doc.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	LVcont.doc.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	LVabstract.doc.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	LVlistfig.doc.pdf	en
dc.rights	In Copyright	en
dc.rights.uri	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/	en
dc.subject	adjuvant	en
dc.subject	ricin	en
dc.subject	edible vaccine	en
dc.subject	Entamoeba histolytica	en
dc.title	Expression strategies for plant-based production of a vaccine adjuvant	en
dc.type	Thesis	en
thesis.degree.discipline	Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science	en
thesis.degree.grantor	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	en
thesis.degree.level	masters	en
thesis.degree.name	Master of Science	en

Expression strategies for plant-based production of a vaccine adjuvant

Files

Original bundle

Collections