Journal of Medicinal Plants Research Vol. 3(11), pp.

825-838, November, 2009

Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/jmpr
ISSN 1996-0875© 2009 Academic Journals

Review

Biosafety considerations associated with molecular

farming in genetically modified plants
*
Didier Breyer , Martine Goossens, Philippe Herman and Myriam Sneyers
Scientific Institute of Public Health, Division of Biosafety and Biotechnology, Rue J. Wytsmanstraat 14, B-1050 Brussels,
Belgium.
Accepted 22 October, 2009

The production in genetically modified plants of recombinant proteins for pharmaceutical or industrial
use, also referred to as "plant molecular farming", deserves increasing interest due to its potential
advantages. However, this type of application of genetic engineering also raises some biosafety
concerns, in particular regarding aspects such as transgene spread in the environment or accidental
contamination of the food and feed chains. This review presents the current state of the art of this sector,
discusses some relevant regulatory issues and outlines important scientific aspects that should be
considered during the safety assessment of genetically modified plants grown for this purpose. In
particular, it addresses general strategies as well as specific potential containment measures that could
be applied to limit the potential environmental and human health impacts linked to plant molecular
farming.

Key words: Biopharming, biosafety, confinement, containment, genetically modified organism, plant molecular
farming, plant-made industrials, plant-made pharmaceuticals.

INTRODUCTION

Plant Molecular Farming (PMF) consists of using trans- The potential societal and ethical issues linked to plant
genic plants as production platforms for the synthesis of molecular farming are outside the scope of this review, as
compounds for pharmaceutical or industrial purposes. well as aspects related to quality, purity or efficacy of the
PMF has been presented as a convenient way to produce products.
molecules of interest on a large scale at low costs. Other
benefits associated with the use of plants are a rapid
scaling up, convenient storage of raw material and less PLANT-BASED SYSTEMS FOR MOLECULAR
concern over human pathogen contamination in FARMING
preparation (Raskin et al., 2002; Twyman et al., 2003).
As with current Genetically Modified (GM) plants, all Pharmaceutical and industrial applications of GM plants
transgenic plants intended for molecular farming must go deserve a growing interest. The production of high-value
through a thorough health and environmental risk recombinant proteins in plants appears indeed to have
assessment before they can be used. In that respect, several potential advantages compared to alternative
PMF raises novel questions that could trigger a need for production platforms currently used such as microbial
specific biosafety considerations. In this review, we fermentation or culture of mammalian cell lines (Daniell et
outline the main challenges linked to the assessment of al., 2001a; Twyman et al., 2005). These advantages
the environmental and health risks associated with PMF include:
and discuss several options available for risk manage- i. Rather straightforward and cost-effective culture and
ment. processing technology in plants.
ii. Ability to perform most post-translational modifications
required for giving functional proteins (Gomord et al.,
2005).
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]. iii. Increased safety to human health of products
Tel: +3226425354. Fax: +3226425292. synthesized in plant systems since the risks arising from
826 J. Med. Plant. Res.

the contamination with human pathogens or toxins are develop efficient and safe strategies for the production of
minimized. clinical-grade protein pharmaceuticals in plants and to
iv. Purification processes that can be avoided (when the define procedures and methods for the production of
plant tissue containing the recombinant protein is used these proteins in compliance with all appropriate
directly for product delivery) or greatly facilitated (when regulations (see http://www.pharma-planta.org/).
recombinant molecules can be targeted or expressed ii. SmartCell, which brings together 14 leading European
directly into certain intracellular compartments). academic laboratories and four industrial partners in order
to create a novel concept for rationally engineering plants
A great diversity of plants is currently being used for PMF. towards improved economical production of high-value
This includes food/feed plants like alfalfa, clover, lettuce, compounds for non-food industrial use
maize, rice, wheat, barley, soybean, oilseed rape, pea, (http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=FP7_NEWS&AC
potato and tomato, non-food plants like tobacco, TION=D&RCN=30444).
Arabidopsis as well as duckweed, mosses and
microscopic algae (Howard, 2005; Ma et al., 2003;
Streatfield and Howard, 2003; Fischer et al., 2004; REGULATORY BACKGROUND
Goldstein and Thomas, 2004).
Some proteins produced by PMF are already on the We provide hereunder a brief overview of the regulations
market: avidin (Hood et al., 1997), ß-glucuronidase and guidance's pertaining to plant molecular farming
(Witcher, 1998), trypsin (Woodard et al., 2003) and focusing on the situation in the United States and the
aprotinin (Howard, 2005). More than 500 recombinant European Union.
pharmaceutical products are believed to be in develop- In the US, the basic institutional structure for regulating
ment worldwide, including agents directed against cancer, biotechnology products is the Coordinated Framework for
infectious diseases and a variety of important medical Regulation of Biotechnology created in 1986 (see
conditions such as monoclonal antibodies (Daniell et al., http://usbiotechreg.nbii.gov). In case of PMF, the USDA's
2001a). Plant-based platforms are also used for Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is
producing subunit vaccines, some of them being in the main agency involved in the regulatory process
clinical trial stage (Ma et al., 2005a). In addition to pertaining to the cultivation while the Food and Drug
vaccines meant for humans, plant-based vaccines and Administration (FDA) covers the pharmacological and
antibodies are being developed for use in animal health safety aspects when the end product is a pharmaceutical.
as well (Floss et al., 2007). GM plants are considered “regulated articles” by APHIS,
The production of heterologous recombinant proteins in which means that the use of such plants outside the
plants offers also a range of potential applications in the constraints of physical containment (e.g. in a field)
field of industrial products, although their development requires an authorization. For most GM plants, this au-
does not appear to be as advanced as for plant-made thorization is obtained through a “notification” procedure.
pharmaceuticals (PMPs) (Hood, 2002). Plant-made Once authorized, the GM plant can, upon successful
industrial products (PMIs) currently in the pipeline include experimental releases, petition for non-regulated status,
enzymes that can be used in detergents, bio-plastics, meaning that it is no longer subject to APHIS oversight
secondary metabolites (phenolics, glucosinolates, and can then be freely commercialized. This is in fact the
tannins, starches, sugars, fragrances, flavours and case for all the major commercial GM crops currently on
alkaloids), fibers or food manufacturing. the US market. However, with regard to GM plants
Plant-based production platforms appear to be producing pharmaceutical and industrial compounds,
developed and tested mostly in North America. In 2006 APHIS has adopted strengthened regulatory
Dow AgroSciences LLC received from the United States requirements since 2003.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) the world's first Accordingly, APHIS requires for these products a more
regulatory approval for a plant-made vaccine, a product to constraining "permit" procedure with specific confinement
protect chickens from the Newcastle disease synthesized measures, procedures to verify compliance and ways to
from tobacco cells grown in bioreactors (see enhance the transparency of the permitting system
http://www.dowagro.com/animalhealth/resources/news/20 (Federal Register Notice, 2003; NARA, 2005). In addi-
060131b.htm). tion, no GM plant field-tested under the permit procedure
In Europe, 41 field trials with such transgenic plants has so far been granted non-regulated status.
have been notified since 1995 (Table 1). None of these In the European Union, unconfined activities for
products have already been approved for marketing in experimental or commercial purposes are regulated by
Europe but some pharmaceutical proteins (gastric lipase, Directive 2001/18/EC on deliberate release of GMOs (EC,
lactoferrin) have reached clinical development (Ma et al., 2001). If the GMO is intended for food and/or feed use it
2005b). The European Union is also funding two major falls under the scope of Regulation (EC) 1829/2003 (EC,
research programs in the field of PMF: 2003). Under these two regulatory frameworks, authoriza-
tions have to be granted at the EU level, use it falls under
i. Pharma-Planta, a consortium of 39 research teams falls under the scope of Regulation (EC) 1829/2003 (EC,
from across Europe and South Africa. Its mission is to 2003). Under these two regulatory frameworks, authoriza-
 Breyer et al. 827

Table 1. Overview of field trials in Europe (1995 - 2009) with transgenic plants
used as production platform for pharmaceutical or industrial products.

Crop Trait/Molecule of interest Nr of trials

Barley Thaumatin (sweetener) 1
Barley Human serum albumin 1
Barley Growth factor 1
Flax Biodegradable plastic 1
Maize Rabies virus G glycoprotein 1
Maize Dog gastric lipase 6
Maize Human collagen 2
Maize Human lactoferrin 2
Maize Human albumin 1
Maize Antibodies 1
Rape Dog gastric lipase 2
Pea Alpha-amylase 1
Feed pea Antibody 1
Potato Spider silk 1
Potato Several pharmaceutical and technical traits 2
Potato Non-plant carbohydrates 1
Potato Spider silk-elastin fusion protein 1
Tobacco Human alpha-1 anti-trypsin 1
Tobacco Dog gastric lipase 7
Tobacco Rabies virus G glycoprotein 1
Tobacco Technical enzymes 1
Tobacco Human collagen 3
Tobacco Human glucocerebrosidase protein 1
Tobacco Taxane diterpenoid 1
(Source: Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, 2009: http://gmoinfo.jrc.it/).

tions have to be granted at the EU level, involving all would be appropriate to deal with PMF (Spök, 2007), the
Member States and the European Commis-sion in main tendency is to consider that the risk assessment
decision-making. For activities involving GMOs conducted methodology and principles developed for the first
under strict containment (e.g. greenhouses or generation of GM crops should be robust enough to
laboratories) Directive 2009/41/EC (EC, 2009) applies. evaluate risks from most applications of PMF. Besides, in
Contained production is under the regulatory oversight of the practice, the health and environmental risk assess-
each particular Member State. When the end product of a ments conducted for GM plants intended for molecular
molecular farming activity is a pharmaceutical, the safety farming are currently performed in most countries
or toxicological aspects of the product and its uses are according to the same criteria and procedures that are
covered by Regulation (EC) 726/2004 on medicinal used for other GM plants (Peterson and Arntzen, 2004;
products (EC, 2004). Sparrow and Twyman, 2009; Spök et al., 2008). Never-
A fundamental and internationally recognized principle theless, there are obviously key challenges from
of all regulations is that the use of a GMO is conditioned regulatory and risk assessment perspectives linked to the
to a prior authorization delivered on a case-by-case basis evaluation of PMF which deserve special attention and
after an in depth risk assessment of the activity has been could justify the need for specific guidance, management
performed. The objective of the risk assessment is to measures and/or political choices. In this context, several
identify and evaluate potential adverse effects of the national and international regulatory bodies have taken
GMO on the receiving environment and on human health. the option to develop guidelines, standards and
The methodology and principles of the risk as-sessment procedures focusing on the use of these GM plants.
are described for example in the Commission Decision The US authorities have issued specific guidance to
2002/623/EC (EC, 2002) for the EU and in the Cartagena cover the risks associated with PMF (FDA, 2002; USDA,
Protocol on Biosafety at the international level 2008). These documents provide information that an
(http://www.cbd.int/biosafety/protocol.shtml). applicant should consider for addressing containment (to
Although some authors have questioned whether the a facility such as a laboratory or greenhouse or during
current GMO regulatory framework, particularly in the EU, movement), confinement (to the field test site), and
828 J. Med. Plant. Res.

environmental issues. Many of these substances are biologically active and may
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has also have effects at low concentrations. As pointed out by
developed several rules, terms and conditions prescribed some authors, virtually every pharmaceutical product
by new guidelines to address the additional environ- currently on the market can cause allergic reactions in
mental and human health concerns associated with the some people (Goldstein and Thomas, 2004). As a result,
use of GM plants for molecular farming (CFIA, 2004b). small amounts of pharmaceutical or indus-trial products
In the European Union, the European Food Safety may harm people that would inadvertently consume them.
Authority (EFSA) published recently a guidance docu- It should be noted however that oral exposure to these
ment addressing specifically the risk assessment of GM products is expected to be infrequent and of relatively
plants used for non-food or non-feed purposes (EFSA, short duration. In addition, most of the plant-made
2009). This guidance supplements a more general pharmaceutical proteins currently in the pipeline are not
guidance for the risk assessment of genetically modified anticipated to have any pharmacological activity when
plants and derived food and feed (EFSA, 2006). EFSA ingested.
only deals with the risks linked to the environmental Recent reviews on safety issues associated with PMF
release of the GM plant. The safety of the plant's product and effective mechanisms to limit the risks include Com-
is considered by the European Medicines Agency, which mandeur et al. (2003), Liénard et al. (2007), Lu (2003),
has prepared guidelines on the safety and quality Mascia and Flavell (2004), Elbehri (2005), Murphy (2007),
requirements of plant-derived drugs (EMEA, 2008). Sparrow et al. (2007), Sparrow and Twyman (2009) and
Discussions on this topic are also going on at Wolt et al. (2007).
international level, notably in the framework of the
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (see
http://www.cbd.int/biosafety/default.shtml). An expert CHOICE OF THE PRODUCTION PLATFORM
group has been established to consider the state of
knowledge on risk assessment associated with future There are many factors to take into consideration when
applications of modern biotechnology - specifically to choosing the plant species that will be used as the host
organisms that are well advanced in the research and for producing the recombinant protein. On the one hand,
development stage and could enter the international the production strategy needs to comply with technical
system in the near future. This work intends also to factors such as the required level of expression, the ways
address plants modified to produce pharmaceuticals. the product must be delivered or the quality of the end
product (see e.g. Vancanneyt et al., 2009). On the other
hand, from the biosafety viewpoint, the production host
BIOSAFETY ISSUES IN PLANT MOLECULAR should be chosen taking into account the potential for and
FARMING impact of exposure of the environment or of the food and
feed chains. Consideration should be given to the
In the case of molecular farming plants, the focus of the potential impact of all aspects of the manufacturing
evaluation for human, animal and environmental safety is process, including cultivation, harvest, transport,
on the risks resulting from accidental exposure to the GM processing, purification, packaging, storage and disposal.
plants by humans and animals since these plants are not It is unlikely that any single plant species will satisfy all
intended for food or feed use nor for intentional of the criteria required. Moreover, the best choice of host
environmental purposes. from a production perspective may not be the best from a
In terms of environmental impacts, potential risks con- biosafety point of view. Table 2 summarizes some of the
cern mainly, as for first-generation GM crops, the vertical main potential advantages and disadvantages for the four
transfer of genes from GM plants to non transgenic main host categories.
populations of the same or related species and the
possible negative effects on mammals, birds, insects or
microorganisms interacting directly or indirectly with Using food plants as production hosts
crops.
Another key challenge linked to the biosafety eva-luation The use of food crops as production systems for
of plants that produce pharmaceutical/industrial pharma-ceuticals or industrial compounds is a
compounds relates to the fact that these production controversial issue. There are several arguments in favor
systems might involve the cultivation in the open of using food crops for PMF (Hennegan et al., 2005;
environment of GM plants that could inadvertently enter Sparrow et al., 2007; Streatfield et al., 2003) and all the
the feed or food chain via admixture, exposing animals or biopharmed products currently on the market are
consumers to potentially toxic compounds. Unlike first- produced via maize production platforms.
generation GM plants, some molecular farming plants are However, many people are concerned about the risks
used specifically to produce substances that have an such GM crops would pose in case they would inadver-
effect on humans or on higher animal species. They are tently enter the food or feed chain. A classic example of
also developed to produce large amount of active sub- such accidental contamination is the ProdiGene incident
stance, many times that produced in previous GM plants. in 2002. Following a standard crop rotation practice,
 Breyer et al. 829

Table 2. Overview of host systems for PMF.

Food plants Non-food plants Non-cultivated plants Plant cells in culture

Examples Maize, rice, potato, soybean, Tobacco, false flax Duckweed, mosses, Tomato, tobacco, carrot
oilseed rape, banana, tomato arabidopsis, algae
Main advantages - Good knowledge of - Not part of the food - Not part of the food - Propagated under
cultivation practices chain chain containment
- In most cases, efficient - In some cases, good - Some of these plants - Easier maintenance of
transformation procedures knowledge of cultivation can easily be grown in quality standards
- More options for the practices and containment
targeting and delivery of the transformation
recombinant protein procedures
Main - Risk of GM plants entering - In some cases, - In some cases, less - Technical drawbacks
disadvantages the food chain production of toxins that knowledge about the (scaling-up ...)
- Risk of gene transfer to could interfere with the genetics and biology of - Higher costs to
related crop species processing of the the plant maintain plant cells in
- Co-existence aspects pharmaceutical/ - Very often, little culture
industrial compound experience with
cultivation in the field

farmers had planted conventional soybeans for human Another option would be the adoption of threshold limits
consumption on land previously used to test in the field in cases of adventitious or technically unavoidable pre-
ProdiGene's GM maize that produces trypsin, a pan- sence of molecular farming products in non-GM products
creatic serine protease. As a result, maize seed left from at low enough levels that risks are minimal (Moschini,
the transgenic crop grew into the soybean fields. 2006; Spök, 2007). A threshold limit of 0.9% is currently
Accidental contamination of the food chain does not only applied at EU level for food and feed agricultural pro-
relate to safety aspects but creates also the potential for ducts. One can wonder however whether such an option
new questions about the financial liability to farmers and would be acceptable to the food industry in the case of
agricultural and food production industries. In this PMF, given the cost and the potential for a negative
ProdiGene's case, the company accepted a civil penalty consumer reaction (USDA, 2002; Becker and Vogt,
of US$ 250,000 and also covered the cost of destroying 2005).
the soybean crop and the clean up steps that followed Allowing the use of food crops for molecular farming is
(Fox, 2003). rather a matter of political choice. And there are many
The policy currently adopted in the US foresees a strict voices, including in the food industry, to stress that rather
requirement that plants grown for pharmaceutical or than attempting to impose ever more elaborate
industrial compounds (and not approved for food and restrictions on the growing of food crops engineered for
feed use) must stay clear of the food system under a pharmaceutical and industrial purposes, it would be better
zero-tolerance standard (USDA, 2006a). This will be to ban such applications altogether and to look for
possible only if a combination of strong physical and bio- alternatives (Murphy, 2007; Union of Concerned
logical containment methods and monitoring measures is Scientists, 2006).
applied. If zero-tolerance is not set up as standard,
several strategies could be envisaged to minimize the
Using non-food or non-cultivated plants
risks for human health associated with inadvertent
admixture with food products. As mentioned in Table 2, the use of non-food or non-
A first option would be to have, for molecular farming cultivated plants for PMF will in some cases be difficult
plants grown in food crops, mandatory pre-marketing and might pose new challenges in the risk assessment
approval of the crops in question and related products due to the lack of knowledge about the genetics and
under the food and feed regulation. Accordingly, a tho- biology, the lack of domestication and/or the limited ex-
trough food-safety analysis should be conducted to en- perience with the cultivation for some species (Murphy,
sure that human exposure to the transgenic crop in the 2007; Sparrow et al., 2007). Despite these drawbacks, it
food supply would not result in any health risks. Such an seems obvious that the adoption of non-food or feed
approach would be similar to what currently exists in the plants will provide containment advantages and will
EU as regards GMOs to be used as feed. According to largely reduce the possibility of unintentional contact and
Regulation EC 1829/2003 and to avoid experiences such contgamination of the food or feed chains.
as with Starlink maize in the US (Harl et al., 2003), these Among this category, tobacco is a very efficient produc-
products can only be marketed if they are authorized both tion system in which a wide range of pharmaceutical
for feed and food uses. products is currently being tested for production (Dunwell
830 J. Med. Plant. Res.

and Ford, 2005). One example is the production by the contamination or environmental impact of PMF. These
company Planet Biotechnology of CaroRx™, a tobacco- options should be considered on a case-by-case basis,
made antibody to control dental caries (Wycoff, 2005). taking into account that they present different levels of
Non-crop plants are also tested as production platform reliability, that many of them are not mutually exclusive
for pharmaceutical or industrial products. This includes and that probably none of them will be able to achieve full
the monocot Lemna (duckweed) (Cox et al., 2006), protection of the environment or a zero level
Arabidopsis, microalgae (Franklin and Mayfield, 2005; contamination of the food/feed chains. Amongst the most
Walker et al., 2005) or mosses (Decker and Reski, 2007). effective strategies are the physical containment of plants
All these species offer the advantage of a rapid or cell cultures, the spatial containment of the GM plants,
reproductive rate and the possibility to be grown easily in the development of biological confinement systems, the
contained facilities which offers many advantages in targeted expression of transgenes, and the development
terms of biosafety. of inducible or transient expression systems.
Canadian authorities are explicitly recommending the
use of non-food or feed crop species for PMPs (CFIA, Physical containment
2004a). In the US, as mentioned above, some organiza-
tions are requesting to avoid the use of food crops to Growing GM plants in physical structures is a first
express pharmaceutical/industrial products. According to example of general preventive measure that would help
APHIS data, maize has dominated as the crop of choice avoiding contamination of the environment or of the
until 2003 but, during the last years, there has been some food/feed chains. Potato, tobacco and other leafy crops
drop in maize trials as a result of a move toward non-food such as alfalfa, lettuce and spinach are examples of
crops for pharmaceutical trials. In the EU, plants for PMF plants that can be grown in contained facilities.
are still considered on a case-by-case basis and no Various forms of physical containment can be envi-
specific recommendations concerning the choice of the saged: plastic tunnels; greenhouse production facilities
host for the production platform have been issued so far. (such as those used by the company Medicago to grow
biopharmaceutical alfalfa for therapeutic proteins –
(Zavon and Flinn, 2003)); laboratories or growth facilities
Cell cultures of transgenic plants
such as phytotrons. Large-scale underground facilities
The safety of PMF can even be made greater by (such as mines) have also been used in the US and
producing the recombinant product in cell cultures of Canada (Tackaberry et al., 2003).
transgenic plants (Hellwig et al., 2004; Murphy, 2007, Systematic restriction of PMF activities to contained
Plasson et al., 2009). The main advantage is that facilities is a drastic solution that has been proposed
suspension-cultured are made in bioreactors, a closed recently in the US. A bill, which passed the Oregon
production system, avoiding problems associated with Senate in 2005 but did not reach a final vote, asked for a
gene flow in the environment and potential contamination four-year moratorium on PMF grown outdoors or using a
of the food and feed chains. In some cases, containment food/feed crop, being for research or commercial purpose
provides not only improved safety but allows also for (http://www.oregonpsr.org/programs/campaignSafeFood.
easier recovery and purification of the molecule that is html).
being produced. For instance, the recombinant protein Physical containment has however some limitations
can be fused with a signal sequence and secreted into such as additional financial resources required to grow
the culture medium. In 2007, the company Protalix star- plants under containment or limitations of the scale of
ted clinical studies for the treatment of Gaucher's disease physical containment strategies (addressed in part by the
using recombinant human glucocerebrosidase produced development of large underground facilities in the US
in a carrot cell suspension culture (Shaaltiel et al., 2007). and Canada). When large quantities of pharmaceutical or
Despite the fact that the adoption of cell culture industrial products are required or the crops do not grow
technology has made progress during the last years, this well in isolated systems, open-field production remains
strategy remains limited for the time being to a small necessary.
number of well-characterized plant cell lines (such as to-
bacco, rice or Arabidopsis) and still needs improve- Spatial containment
ments before it can be used in routine on a commercial
scale. Spatial separation includes several strategies aiming
mainly at minimizing cross-fertilization between pharma/
industrial crops and other crops. They could be of interest
COMPLEMENTARY STRATEGIES TO LIMIT THE in particular in cases where the cultivation of pharma/
POTENTIAL RISKS OF PMF industrial GM plants can be performed on small area.
In addition to the choice of the most appropriate
production platform for biopharming, a wide variety of Dedicated land
complementary options involving either physical or
biological methods are available to limit food/feed chains This approach consists in cultivating molecular farming
 Breyer et al. 831

crops in regions where similar non-farming crops are not confinement, a strategy emphasized by the National
grown or in locations that are far removed from areas Research Council in the US (NRC, 2004). Confinement
where non-farming crops are grown (FDA, 2002). This strategies may be based on many different biological
could virtually eliminate the risk of gene flow to non- principles (Dunwell and Ford, 2005). In Europe, the
farming plants and even of contamination of the food or Transcontainer project, funded from the European
feed chains. Although this approach may be difficult to set Commission Sixth Framework Programme, is working on
up and to monitor in practice, conceptual production new strategies to develop efficient and stable biological
model have been proposed to demonstrate the econo- confinement systems for GM plants
mic, safety, and environmental advantages of using (http://www.transcontainer.org/UK/).
dedicated growing area for transgenic nonfood products
without switching between food and non-food uses on the
same site (Howard and Hood, 2007). Plastid transformation

This confinement strategy consists in inserting the

Restricted use transgenes into the plant chloroplast genome instead of
the plant nuclear genome. In addition to offering high
In case the use of fully-dedicated land is not possible, rates of transgene expression and protein accumulation
field-testing or commercial production of PMPs and PMIs (Staub et al., 2000; De Cosa et al., 2001; Molina et al.,
could be restricted in certain area for a defined number of 2004), molecular farming in chloroplasts has potential
growing seasons (depending on the plant) before the field advantages at biosafety level (Bock, 2007; Ruf et al.,
can be used in the production of crops intended for use 2007; Verma and Daniell, 2007). These advantages
as food or feed. In that respect, US proposed rules for the include the ability to control the site of gene insertion
regulation of field-testing of plants designed to produce more precisely, and in many angiosperm species, the
pharmaceutical and industrial compounds include a lack of transmission of transgenes via pollen due to the
prohibition against the planting of a food crop the year fact that plastid genes are maternally inherited. Since the
after the land was used for biopharming (Jones, 2003). If pollen of many crop species does not contain chloro-
different molecular farming crops are to be grown on the plasts, the transgene may not be transferable, conferring
same land in subsequent years, appropriate quality to this method a form of natural genetic confinement
assurance measures should be adopted to control the (Hagemann, 2004). Tobacco remains to date the species
quality of the raw agricultural material and the product. most amenable to plastid transformation although
chloroplast genetic engineering has also been achieved
successfully in other species, including tomato, cotton
Buffer and border zones and potato, notably for the production of vaccine antigens
and pharmaceutical proteins (human serum albumin,
When pharmaceutical or industrial crops must be grown
interferon...) (Daniell et al., 2001b,c, 2006). This strategy
in the vicinity of food and feed crops, the potential of gene
has also been considered as a recommended approach
flow to nearby fields can be addressed using two different
for gene confinement in a report of the Euro-pean
approaches that are already common practice in the
Environment Agent(Eastham and Sweet, 2002).
management of GM plants of the first-generation.
Nevertheless the suitability of chloroplast genetic
Firstly, minimum isolation distances (buffer zones) can
engineering for transgene containment remains to be
be imposed between fields of pharma/industrial crops and
assessed on a case-by-case basis. Plastid transgenesis
fields of the same species intended for food, feed or
is not necessarily a 100% reliable containment strategy.
seed. Isolation distances will vary depending on the
The transgene could escape from the chloroplast and
biology of the plant (self-pollinating, wind-borne,..).
enter the nucleus where it could under high selection
Secondly, it is also possible to plant a border of non-
pressure become active even if this would necessitate
transgenic "trap" plants around the production field.
complex changes (Grevich and Daniell, 2005). Some
These trap plants capture the majority of the pollen that
studies have also shown the possibility of rare paternal
might be produced by the GM plants. This method was
plastid transmission (Svab and Maliga, 2007; Wang et al.,
originally developed to keep different conventional
2004).
varieties from crossing with each other, but it can be
applied as well for keeping pharma/industrial crops and
other crops separate. While potentially reducing contami- Male sterility
nation via pollen dispersal, these approaches, used
alone, will never achieve zero contamination. There are a large number of naturally occurring mecha-
nisms of inducing male sterility. These mechanisms are
very well known to the plant breeders and exploited to
Biological confinement control hybridization in plants. In addition, male sterility
Reducing or preventing the flow of transgenes from the can also be engineered in crops through recombinant
production site could also be achieved through biological nucleic acid technology, providing means by which trans-
832 J. Med. Plant. Res.

genes are prevented from transferring to other plants. ting natural mechanisms) may also prove useful to reduce
One of the most commonly used recombinant systems is or eliminate gene flow among crops. They include
the Barstar Barnase GM rapeseed developed in the apomixis (production of seed or fruit without the need for
1990s by the company Plant Genetic Systems (PGS, fertilization and pollination), cleistogamy (self-pollination
Ghent, Belgium). In this system, promoter-directed and fertilization before flower opening), genomic incom-
expression of the destructive ribonuclease barnase from patibility (placing the transgene on a genome of a
Bacillus amyloquefaciens inhibits pollen formation and polyploid plant species that is not compatible with related
results in male sterility of the transformed plants. The aim wild species), temporal and tissue-specific control via
of the PGS system was to simplify the breeding of high- inducible promoters (see below) or transgenic mitigation
yield hybrid varieties. In principle it can also be used to (inclusion of transgenes such as genes inducing dwarfism
biologically contain genetically modified plants and so or controlling seed dormancy, that compromise fitness in
prevent the spread of foreign genes. Male-sterile maize, the hybrid under non-agricultural conditions) (Daniell,
oilseed rape, tobacco, sugar beet, sunflowers, potatoes, 2002).
tomatoes, wheat, rice and cauliflower have already been It is important to realize that most of the biological
produced as a result of this technology. confinement mechanisms described above are far from
Alternative systems for inducing male sterility are also being used for commercial production (Ellstrand, 2003).
under development, e.g. by engineering cytoplasmic In addition, some of them (such as chloroplast trans-
male-sterility (Dunwell and Ford, 2005; Ruiz and Daniell, formation or male sterility) do not prevent gene transfer
2005; Chase, 2006). Another approach to produce pollen- resulting from seed dispersal during cultivation, harvest or
sterile plants is to target and kill off the cells that are transport. It is therefore unlikely that biological measures
involved in the development of the male flower (Brunner will totally prevent gene flow. To achieve a high level of
and Nilsson, 2004). Despite this great variety of methods protection of the environment, the choice to apply one or
and approaches to induce male sterility in plants there are several of these technologies might be done on a case-by
few systems other than the Barstar Barnase that have case basis, in parallel or in combination with other
been extensively tested in the field for their efficacy. containment measures and depending on the intrinsic
characteristics of each specific crop.
Gene Use Restriction Technologies (GURTs)
Targeted expression
GURTs is a collective term gathering biotechnology-
based switch mechanisms to restrict the use of genetic
Targeting the expression of the product of interest to a
material. Two types of GURTs can be distinguished:
few specific plant parts or subcellular compartments
variety use restriction (V-GURTs), in which sterile seeds
represents another strategy to reduce the unintended ex-
are produced in the subsequent generation; and use re-
posure to a pharmaceutical or industrial product. This
striction of a specific trait (T-GURTs), in which activation
can be achieved by the use of tissue specific promoters.
of a trait’s expression is switched on or off through the
There are several options available which can be imple-
external application of inducers. Seed sterility V-GURT is
mented depending on the potential advantages and
also well known as the so-called "Terminator" techno-
disadvantages in terms of increased yields, simplification
logy, a system developed under a cooperative research
of the purification process and biosafety aspects.
and development agreement between USDA and Delta
and Pine Land Company (Oliver et al., 1998). This sy-
stem has been much criticized in the public opinion as a Expression from or in roots
mean for multinational seed companies to restrict the
freedom of farmer of saving and re-sowing seeds. As a The engineering of plants to secrete molecules from their
result such systems have been withdrawn from roots into medium is a technology that is currently being
commercial development and even from field trials since tested for the production of recombinant proteins in
several years. Despite of this, some plant developers molecular farming (Vitale and Pedrazzini, 2005). This
would like to re-use the technology for the environmental technology has the advantage of allowing the production
containment of transgenic seed (V-GURTs) or transgenes of proteins in a bioreactor (thus in contained facilities) but
(T-GURTs). However, to what extent these GURTs are in is still far from being used at the commercial level. On the
fact suitable for biological confinement is not clear due to opposite, another strategy that is currently under
the lack of scientifically based, reliable information on the investigation consists in blocking release or diffusion of
practicability and reliability of these approaches (Lee and the product from the roots of transgenic plants for reten-
Natesan, 2006). tion in the endoplasmic reticulum. This would contribute to
the environmental safety of crops producing PMPs by
reducing the potential release into the environment of
Other biological confinement strategies toxins or other pharmaceutical products that could cause
“protein pollution” and represent a hazard for soil and
Several other confinement strategies (sometimes exploi- rhizosphere microbial communities (Pizzuti and Daroda,
 Breyer et al. 833

2008). times, therefore decreasing the potential for pollen

transfer. This option is however difficult to implement in
practice because of the difficulty to control environmental
Expression in edible parts factors influencing the timing of flowering in plants.

If the product is to be consumed then production in a fruit

or edible portion of a plant is a possible choice. A well- Post-harvest inducible expression
known example is the use of plants such as banana, In this biological approach, the transgene is not ex-
potato, lettuce or carrot as potential vehicles for a vac- pressed at all in the plants in the field but the molecular
cine against hepatitis B (Kumar et al., 2007). It should be farming product will only be formed when the harvested
noted however that the idea of using fruit or vegetables plant material is removed to a processing facility and
directly as vaccine is now being reconsidered seriously exposed to a chemical or environmental stimulus that
due to the problems associated with adequate dosage of activates expression of the transgene (Cramer et al.,
the recombinant product and the potential for inadvertent 1999). This can be achieved for example with the use of
mixing with material destined for food or feed chain. an inducible promoter or through the expression of the
product in a form that must be treated for activation (e.g.
hirudin is produced as a fusion protein and is inactive in
Expression in seeds this form; it is activated only after it is purified from
seeds). Inducible expression of the GM trait requires of
Another approach is the production of the pharmaceutical course stringent application conditions. In addition, such
or industrial product specifically in seeds from cereals, system may prove useful only in very limited cases where
grain legumes or oilseeds. There are several practical the protein of interest may not require extended or
advantages to production in seeds that include accumu- constant expression throughout the life cycle of a
lation of proteins in a stable environment in which they are transgenic plant.
protected from degradation, convenience of harvest, easy
transportation from farm to production factories, facilitated
downstream protein extraction and convenience of seeds Transient expression
for end use if the product is to be consumed directly
without purification (Stoger et al., 2005). On the other This approach is being used more and more extensively
hand, production in seeds (like in fruits) does not address by companies aiming to the fast production of vaccines or
adequately the issue of pollen transfer since the other products on a small or medium scale (Streatfield
transgenic plants must go through a flowering cycle. and Howard, 2003; Vézina et al., 2009). High levels of
protein expression can be achieved for a short time. In
this case, the transgene is only present temporarily in the
Expression in other parts of the plant plant cells and cannot be inherited by the next generation.
Another safety advantage is that the technique is
Recombinant proteins can also be targeted into specific generally applied in a contained environment. Different
plant organs that can be easily harvested and removed DNA or RNA delivery approaches can be used to gene-
from the field such as leaves or stems. For example, rate transient expression: direct delivery methods (e.g.
materials produced in the vegetative parts of alfalfa or particle bombardment or microinjection), viral vector
tobacco can be harvested prior to flower and pollen systems (Gils et al., 2005) or bacterial infection systems.
development. In the case of maize, the tassels could be One of the most promising transient expression systems
manually removed. Although in these cases the plants do is agroinfiltration which is based on the inoculation of
not need to flower, these approaches raise other leaves with recombinant Agrobacterium tumefaciens
biosafety issues such as the potential exposure of (D'Aoust et al., 2008, 2009; Marillonnet et al., 2005).
herbivores to recombinant proteins expressed in the
leaves (Sparrow et al., 2007).
ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

Temporal confinement Handling, transport, equipment and personnel

Temporal confinement can occur through physical or Under normal agricultural and grain-handling channels,
biological methods. equipment is not entirely cleaned out and co-mixture of
different seeds is therefore always possible. The use of
Use of "a typical" growing seasons dedicated equipment for planting, harvesting and trans-
porting molecular farming plants and even of dedicated
This strategy of physical temporal confinement consists in facilities for the processing of source plant materials
planting molecular farming crops at different times than provides an additional protection against accidental
food and feed crops to prevent an overlap in flowering mixing with plants entering the food/feed supply. Ideally,
834 J. Med. Plant. Res.

containers used to transport and/or store harvested by some companies as one way to defray the high costs
products should also be dedicated to PMF activities, of purification. This approach has been however criticized
although this will be very difficult to achieve in practice for for the additional level of risk it would pose to food safety
the larger transportation equipment (such as ships). A (Freese, 2002). In any case, decisions concerning the use
further option to improve safety is the clear labeling of of left over materials as animal feed or derived products
containers of harvested material, indicating that the (such as starch produced from GM potato tubers) should
material is not to be used for food or feed purposes. All be considered on a case by case basis depending on the
these options would certainly greatly contribute to limit the nature or risk associated with the molecular farmed
potential contamination of the food and feed chains but material and the proposed end use.
their implementation could be refrained in particular due
to the additional costs that dedicated equipment and
facilities could represent for the producers. Post-market management measures
To avoid or limit co-mixture in the case where food
crops are used as production systems for pharmaceu- If the molecular farming plant is grown in the field, the
ticals or industrial compounds, a comprehensive monitoring of the production site, supported by an
management system should be considered including the appropriate inspection plan, will be required as for any
development and implementation of appropriate proce- GM plant cultivated outdoor. According to European
dures (Mascia and Flavell, 2004). Such management Directive 2001/18/EC, the objective of post-market moni-
system could be based on or complement those adopted toring is (i) to confirm that any assumptions regarding the
in the framework of production protocols. These are occurrence and impact of potential adverse effects of the
designed to maintain product integrity and consistency and GMO or its use in the risk assessment are correct, and (ii)
prevent contamination of the plant-made end-product to identify the occurrence of adverse effects of the GMO
during all stages of production. These procedures cover or its use on human health or the environment which were
e.g. the cleaning of equipment and storage faci-lities, the not anticipated in the risk assessment. Any unusual
harvesting of the source material, the control over the occurrence should be reported to the appropriate
inventory and disposition of viable seeds... regulatory authority.
In addition to the control of environmental exposure to Detection and quantification of GMOs are key elements
plant-made pharmaceuticals or industrial products, it of some post-market management system. This is the
could be necessary to implement protective measures to case in particular in the EU for GMOs used as food or
limit exposure of workers during all phases of production, feed (EC, 2003). As a consequence, adequate molecular
harvest and processing (occupational safety). Indeed, the methods must be available that enable the detection,
production of PMPs or PMIs can result in direct identification and quantification of each GMO individually
exposures of workers participating in the production and (the so-called “transformation event”). Such a system
processing of the product (Wolt et al., 2007). For instance, also aims at detecting GMOs that are not authorized in
touching or inhaling of plant vaccine materials during the relevant jurisdiction and therefore could pose a
production may lead to oral tolerance or allergenicity (Kirk potential risk for consumers if they enter the food or feed
et al., 2005). These concerns are in essence not different chain. This would also be the case for molecular farming
than those associated with any pharmaceutical plants or parts thereof in case of accidental contami-
manufacturing process where the routes of worker nation, especially when a considerable number of diverse
exposure may involve dermal contact, hand-to-mouth crops are reached.
transfers, or inhalation. Protected measures will have to In that respect, potential management tools can be
be implemented on a case by case basis (depending on envisaged to support molecular detection and quantifi-
the allergenic or toxic effects of the molecule) for both cation of the pharma plant accidentally appearing in food
cultivating sites and processing units, taking into account or feed. For instance, standard production protocols may
that the place are in some cases particular in the case of involve tagging of such plants with a generic non-
PMF (field, greenhouse...). food/feed GM plant-specific DNA sequence identifier,
apart from an event-specific marker, preferably being
devoid of open reading frame (EFSA, 2009). This risk
Waste management management tool would facilitate event-specific DNA
detection of the GMO.
Residual material left on the cultivating site and in the The introduction of morphological markers (visual
storage facilities and by-products of processing could confinement) is another strategy that could help in the
become an issue in particular if molecular farming activi- identification and traceability of crops expressing
ties increase in scale. Appropriate measures (consigned pharmaceutical or industrial products. In this case, the
in standard operating procedures) should therefore be bioengineered pharmaceutical or industrial plant line is
taken to handle the waste in order to ensure that the made visually distinctive from its food or feed counter-
material will not enter the human or animal food chain or part. This might include for example the use of genetic
impact the environment. markers that alter the physical appearance of the plant
The use of the remaining biomass has been proposed (e.g. a novel color or leaf pattern), or change the condi-
 Breyer et al. 835

tions under which a plant will grow (for example the use of estimated not to exceed 10,000 ha globally and should
auxotrophic marker genes) (Commandeur et al., 2003; not have a large direct impact on agriculture (Graff and
FDA, 2002). Such measure would of course help when Moschini, 2004; Wolt et al., 2007). According to other
contamination has occurred but may not prevent it in the estimations some PMF applications could require much
first place. In addition, this would imply adding new larger acreage (Spök and Karner, 2008). It seems evident
heterologous genes in the plant genome which could that a simultaneous cultivation of various types of
make the risk assessment of such GMOs even more pharmaceutical or industrial plants might challenge the
complex. coexistence regimes currently established for GM and
non-GM agriculture (particularly in the EU), rendering
segregation measures much more complex and costly to
CONCLUSION implement than with the first generation of GM products.
In any case, open field cultivation will always need
Plants offer a wide range of technical options for the additional stringent measures. Spatial containment
production of pharmaceutical or industrial products. Given strategies have been presented as a mean to minimize
the great diversity of potential production systems and cross-fertilization between pharma/industrial crops and
target molecules, many strategies could be implemented other conventional agricultural crops. Targeted expres-
to limit the potential negative impact on the environment sion of the recombinant product to specific plant parts or
and the inadvertent contamination of food or feed compartments represents another way of reducing the
associated with PMF, including the choice of the unintended exposure to a pharmaceutical or industrial
production host, the implementation of physical and product. Last but not least, several methods of biological
biological containment methods and the adoption of containment have been reviewed and discussed in this
relevant management practices. Some of these strategies paper. They will certainly add an extra layer of isolation
will involve relatively low-tech measures, such as and should be of considerable help in reducing the pos-
meticulous planning and supervision of each step in the sibility of contamination of food or feed. Unfortunately,
production process. Other might involve complex most of these strategies are still in the development
procedures and much additional cost. Any final decision phase and it will most probably still make some time be-
in that respect should be based on the results of a case fore they provide effective means to create reliable
by case science-based risk assessment. biological containment systems.
One of the key questions to be answered in the case of Plant molecular farming opens the door for the produc
PMF is how far zero-tolerance contamination into the food tion of pharmaceuticals and industrial compounds at low
and feed chains should be met. Lowering the con- costs and with several potential advantages com-pared to
tamination level to the zero-tolerance level is advocated microbial or mammalian production platforms. However,
by many (and this is currently the regulatory standard any developments in this field must be framed by a
adopted in the US) due to several cases of unexpected thorough evaluation of the risks to the food/feed supply
contamination of the food chain by transgenic crops over system and the environment. This assessment must take
the past decade. In practice, a 100% guarantee of zero into account the characteristics of the host plant, the
contamination might most probably be achievable only by product, the intended production area, and relevant
totally precluding field cultivation to ensure complete handling practices. Although there is a general agreement
isolation from the food and feed chains. Physical contain- that the health and environmental risk assessments
ment could encompass all aspects of the development conducted for GM plants intended for molecular farming
and production processes, from breeding and testing to can be performed according to the same criteria and
commercial production. procedures that are used for other GM plants, many
Such an option could apply to certain type of molecular countries have also acknowledged the need to develop
farming. But open field cultivation might be in other cases specific guidance focusing on PMF. This in turn shows
the only commercially acceptable option for the the need for a strong and adaptable regulatory framework
production of some PMP or PMI (Spök and Karner, to support the specifics of plant molecular farming.
2008). To limit the possibility of inadvertent entry into the
food chain, the use of non-food crops such as tobacco
might be envisaged. Nevertheless, as discussed earlier, ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
using food crops for the production of PMPs or PMIs has
also some merits that should be considered. Therefore, it The authors would like to thank Yann Devos (GMO Unit,
is maybe not relevant to exclude a priori major crop plants European Food Safety Authority, Parma, Italy) for his
as hosts, particularly if the target molecule poses little or useful contribution in the early stage of preparation of this
no risk to environmental or human health. manuscript.
Field production of PMPs or PMIs has at present be
limited to trials covering only a relatively few hectares
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