Engineering of plants for the expression of helminth glycoproteins with their native N-glycan structures

Description

Engineering plants for the expression of helminth glycoproteins with their native N-glycan structures Ruud H.P. Wilbers1, Lotte B. Westerhof 1, Bart Everts2, Kim van Noort 1, Debbie R. van Raaij1, Dieu-Linh Nguyen2, Maria Yazdanbakhsh2, Cornelis H. Hokke2 and Arjen Schots1 1 Laboratory of Nematology, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands 2 Department of Parasitology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands Schistosoma mansoni is a parasitic trematode that, like other helminths, secretes immunomodulatory proteins. These secreted proteins are main topics of research as they are possible vaccine candidates or may have therapeutic potential to treat inflammatory disorders. Many helminth secretory proteins carry complex N-glycans, but the exact role of these N-glycans on immunomodulatory properties remains to be elucidated. As the purification of a single glycoprotein from S. mansoni is inefficient and unsustainable, a platform is required that enables production of such glycoproteins. Here we show that S. mansoni-derived glycoproteins can be efficiently produced in plants. Furthermore, we have engineered the plant glycosylation machinery to synthesise N-glycans carrying structures like Lewis X or LDNF. Altogether, our results demonstrate that plants are an excellent platform for the expression of helminth glycoproteins with their native N-glycans. This opens up a new field of research and might lead to the identification of novel therapeutic targets.

Period	27 May 2016
Event title	The second conference of the International Society for Plant Molecular Farming
Event type	Conference
Location	Ghent, Belgium