Table 2.

Selected examples of recombinant protein production in plants.

Recombinant protein	Host species	Transgenesis Type	Max Reported Yield	Notable Addition(s)	Reference
Alkaline Phosphatase	N. tabacum	Stable - nuclear	1.1μg/g DW (3% TSP)	Used phyllosecretion of the protein to simplify purification	(Komarnytsky et al., 2000)
alpha-1-antitrypsin (rAAT)	Oryza sativa L. cell culture	Stable - nuclear	247 mg/L (10% TEP)	Used inducible α‐amylase (RAmy3D) promoter	(McDonald et al., 2008)
Anti-toxoplasma IgG	M. bracteata	Transient	591.1μg/g FW	Found that older leaves had the highest expression and that this species had 2-fold higher expression than N. benthamiana	(Abd-Aziz et al., 2020)
Cry2Aa2 (Bt. Toxin)	N. benthamiana	Stable - chloroplastic	45.3% TSP in leaves	Used chloroplast expression	(Cosa et al., 2001)
Green fluorescent protein (GFP)	N. benthamiana	Transient – viral vectors	3.7mg/g FW in leaves	Used a double terminator to increase expression by 2-fold Used geminiviral vector for its broad host range Also transformed lettuce tomatoes, eggplants, hot peppers, melons, and orchids	(Yamamoto et al., 2018)
GFP	N. benthamiana	Transient – viral vectors	1mg/g FW (30% TSP)	Used novel pEff vector, with p24 silencing suppressor	(Mardanova et al., 2017)
GFP	N. benthamiana	Transient – viral vectors	4mg/g FW in leaves	Used magnifection with TMV-vectors (early magnICON system)	(Marillonnet et al., 2005)
Hepatitis B core antigen (HBc)	N. benthamiana	Transient- viral vectors	800μg/g FW in leaves	Used BeYDV-derived vector and p19 silencing inhibitor	(Huang et al., 2009)
hGAD65mut	N. tabacum	Stable - nuclear	114.3μg/g FW in leaves	Tissue can be eaten – no purification Generation of elite lines took 6 generations of selfing and 3 years	(Avesani et al., 2013)
human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (hG-CSF)	Wolffia arrhiza	Stable - nuclear	35.5μg/g FW (0.194% TSP)	Aquatic plant host with very rapid doubling time and high protein content Wolffia may be better than Lemna as the former has no root system and can be submerged	(Khvatkov et al., 2018)
Human Growth Hormone (hGH)	N. benthamiana	Transient – viral vectors	170μg/g FW in leaves	Used CMV expression vector	(Fujiki et al., 2008)
human interleukin‐6 (hIL6)	N. benthamiana	Transient	18.49μg/g FW after purifying	Used a family 3 cellulose‐binding domain affinity tag to enhance purification	(Islam et al., 2018)
Miraculin	Solanum lycopersicum	Stable - nuclear	340μg/g FW	Codon optimisation and use of the protein’s native terminator had highest expression	(Hiwasa-Tanase et al., 2010)
Murine IgG	N. benthamiana	Transient	147.7mg/g FW	Use of the p19 silencing inhibitor increased expression by 14-fold	(Kuo et al., 2013)
Norwalk Virus Capsid Protein (NVCP)	N. benthamiana	Transient – viral vectors	860μg/g FW in leaves	Used the magnICON expression system	(Santi et al., 2008)
thymosin α1 concatemer	Solanum lycopersicum	Stable - nuclear	6.098μg/g FW in fruits	Used polygalacturonase promoter for fruit specific expression	(Chen et al., 2009)
β-glucuronidase	Lemna minor L.	Stable - nuclear	1.43% TSP	High protein content in Lemna (up to 45% of DW)	(Kozlov et al., 2019)
Human Serum Albumin	Physcomitrella patens	Stable - nuclear	0.3 µg/mL	Secreted protein into culture medium	(Baur et al., 2005)
Human glucocerebrosidase	Nicotiana. Root Culture	Stable - nuclear	1 µg/g of root	Analysed N-glycosylation patterns	(Naphatsamon et al., 2018)
Influenza haemagglutinin (from H5N1 and H1N1) Virus-like particles	N. benthamiana	Transient	50 mg/kg FW	Electron microscopy showed VLPs accumulate in apoplastic indentations of the plasma membrane	(D’Aoust et al., 2008)

Yield abbreviations are: Fresh Weight (FW), Dry Weight (DW), Total Soluble Protein (TSP), Total Extracted Protein (TEP). This table is not an exhaustive list, but rather shows a range of examples of recombinant proteins that have been produced in different plant species, using different methods of transgenesis, and their resulting yields.