Expression and Purification of Plant Embryogenic Proteins

The main goal of this project was to develop and optimize an efficient, scalable procedure for large-scale production and purification of Phytocyanin-Like Arabinogalactan (PLA) proteins expressed in Escherichia coli from various plant species. PLA proteins are a family of proteins that have shown improvement of somatic embryogenesis and regeneration in Gossypium hirsutum (upland cotton) (Poon et al). Poon’s work was furthered to explore the somatic embryogenic potential of Theobroma Cacao PLA (TcPLA), an ortholog of GhPLA. Accomplishing industrial-scale production of high quality PLA proteins would benefit crop improvement programs – ultimately improving nutrition and yields in the face of increased population and degrading environmental conditions. This research project, funded by the National Science Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, explored an alternative purification method of PLA proteins to optimize the production process.