Posttranslational modification of therapeutic proteins in plants

Plants have emerged as an alternative to current systems for the production of therapeutic proteins. The advantages of plants for the low-cost and large-scale production of safe and biologically active mammalian proteins have been documented recently. A major advantage of transgenic plants over production systems that are based on yeast or Escherichia coli is their ability to perform most of the posttranslational modifications (PTMs) that are required for the bioactivity and pharmacokinetics of recombinant therapeutic proteins. Furthermore, recent advances in the control of PTMs in transgenic plants have made it possible for plants to perform, at least to some extent, human-like modifications of recombinant proteins. Hence, plants have become a suitable alternative to animal cell factories for the production of therapeutic proteins.