Abstract
Sugar, the most popular sweetener, is essential in daily food. However, excessive sugar intake has been associated with several lifestyle-related diseases. Finding healthier and more economical alternatives to sugars and artificial sweeteners has received increasing attention to fulfill the growing demand. Brazzein, which comes from the pulp of the edible fruit of the African plant Pentadiplandra brazzeana Baill, is a protein that is 2,000 times sweeter than sucrose by weight. Here we report the production of transgenic mice that carry the optimized brazzein gene driven by the goat Beta-casein promoter, which specifically directs gene expression in the mammary glands. Using western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry, we confirmed that brazzein could be efficiently expressed in mammalian milk, while retaining its sweetness. This study presents the possibility of producing plant protein-sweetened milk from large animals such as cattle and goats.
Publication types
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
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Animals
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Blotting, Southern
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Cattle
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Embryonic Stem Cells / metabolism
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Female
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Genetic Vectors
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Goats / genetics
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HEK293 Cells
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Humans
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Mammary Glands, Animal / metabolism
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Mice
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Mice, Transgenic
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Milk / metabolism*
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Organ Specificity
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Plant Proteins / genetics*
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Plant Proteins / metabolism*
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Promoter Regions, Genetic / genetics
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RNA, Messenger / genetics
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RNA, Messenger / metabolism
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Recombinant Proteins / genetics
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Recombinant Proteins / metabolism
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Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
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Transcription, Genetic / genetics
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Transgenes / genetics
Substances
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Plant Proteins
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RNA, Messenger
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Recombinant Proteins
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brazzein protein, Pentadiplandra brazzeana
Grants and funding
This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 31071293), National Science and Technology Major Project (Grant no. 2009ZX10004-405), Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China (Grant no. 2011A060901019), and Innovative Research Team in University (Grant no IRT1248). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.