Date of Award
8-6-2012
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Biology, MS
First Advisor
Maureen Dolan
Second Advisor
Carole Cramer
Committee Members
Shiguang Yu
Call Number
LD 251 .A566t 2012 E32
Abstract
Plant-based production systems may provide a solution to the safety, cost, and scalability limitations of traditional vaccine production. While subunit vaccines offer several advantages, challenges of low immunogenicity need to be addressed. The nontoxic B subunit of ricin (RTB) may provide a novel platform for effective delivery and immune presentation for subunit vaccines. The RTB lectin binds sugars on the surface of mammalian cells to facilitate uptake/transport of fused antigen. The natural cell trafficking of RTB may allow differential presentation to the two major arms of the animal immune system, antibody- and cell-mediated using an RTB and RTBKDEL fusion vaccine strategy. To test this, fusion constructs of RTB and RTBKDEL with the model antigen ovalbumin were designed and protein expressed in Nicotiana benthamiana plants using Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression. Western blot analysis was used to assess yield and quality, and all fusion proteins were characterized for stability and lectin binding.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Elkins, Lana, "Transient Expression of Ova Antigen: RTB Fusions in Plants for Production of Improved Subunit Vaccines" (2012). Student Theses and Dissertations. 879.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/879
