Nuclear expression of an environmentally friendly synthetic protein based polymer gene in tobacco cells

We report here expression of a protein based polymer gene (Gly-Val-Gly-Val-Pro)₁₂₁, coding for three amino acids in a pentamer sequence repeated 121 times via the nuclear genome of tobacco cells. Transformed tobacco cells were obtained by particle bombardment. Stably transformed cells show the presence of the polymer gene in the tobacco nuclear genome (2-5 copies); introduced polymer gene is transcribed efficiently as revealed by Northern blots; Western blots show the presence of the polymer protein. To the best of our knowledge, this report represents the first demonstration of expression of a synthetic gene (with no natural analog) in higher plants.