Plant CellBased Bioprocessing

Authors: R Eibl D Eibl

Publish Date: 2009

Volume: , Issue: , Pages: 315-356

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Abstract

Plant cellbased bioprocessing is the use of plant cell and tissue cultures for the production of biologically active substances low molecular secondary metabolites and recombinant proteins The most significant advantage of plant cell culture over the traditionally grown whole wild plant or engineered transgenic plant is the sterile production of metabolites under defined controlled conditions independent of climatic changes and soil conditions which means that variations in product yield and quality can be better avoided Furthermore regulatory requirements such as the cGMP standards which have to be adhered to in the early stages of pharmaceutical production are more easily metMoreover plant cells are capable of performing complex posttranslational processing which is a precondition for heterologous protein expression When compared with mammalian cells which currently dominate in the commercial protein manufacture plant cell cultures as alternative expression systems guarantee safer processes because there is a lower risk of contamination by mammalian viruses pathogens and toxins In addition to this considerable advantage the process costs can also be substantially reduced This is due to the fact that plant cell culture medium is very simple in composition and therefore relatively inexpensiveThis chapter provides an overview of culture types techniques and suitable bioreactors used to produce secondary metabolites and recombinant proteins in plant cells We describe plant cell culture basics discuss key topics relevant to plant cell bioreactor engineering with application examples and give an overview of approaches to improving productivity of plant cellbased processes

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