Mycogen other research news

Transgenic tobacco plants can produce a hepatitis B antigen that is as effective in inducing immunity as the available yeast-produced recombinant vaccine.

As reported by Texas A&M researchers and collaborators in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, mice were immunized weekly for three weeks with the transgenic antigen or the yeast-derived vaccine. The group given the yeast-derived vaccine showed near maximum levels of specific antibodies by week three. The group given the tobacco product (a crude extract, of which the antigen comprised less than 3 percent of the total protein) developed similar levels of specific antibodies by week seven, which then remained at relatively high levels for the 18 weeks studied. ...