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SUMMARY:Recombinant Expression of Silk Sericin in Duckweed (Lemna japonica
 ) as a Sustainable Platform for Functional Biomaterial Production
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20261002T073000Z
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20261002T074500Z
DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260916T130428Z
UID:indico-contribution-2937@cern.ch
DESCRIPTION:Speakers: Julia Eva Fortmueller (Weizmann Institute of Science
  )\nSilk sericin\, a glycoprotein produced by Bombyx mori\, naturally coat
 s and binds silk fibroin fibers during cocoon formation. Beyond this role\
 , sericin's biocompatibility\, low immunogenicity\, and bioactive properti
 es\, including antioxidant and adhesive effects\, have made it attractive 
 for a range of biomedical and biomaterial applications. However\, conventi
 onal degumming methods are harsh\, reduce protein purity\, and are constra
 ined by low yield and poor reproducibility between batches.\nTo overcome t
 hese limitations\, we explored duckweed (Lemna japonica)\, a fast-growing\
 , readily transformable aquatic plant\, as an alternative production platf
 orm. We generated stable transgenic duckweed lines expressing silk sericin
 \, representing one of the first efforts to establish duckweed as a platfo
 rm for recombinant silk-derived protein expression\, and characterized exp
 ression levels and tissue-specific accumulation. Soluble sericin was recov
 ered from plant extracts via heat-treatment method.\nWe then evaluated the
  functional bioactivity of duckweed-derived sericin using an established m
 ammalian cell model\, benchmarking its performance against commercially av
 ailable sericin under standardized conditions. Quantitative and morphologi
 cal assessments confirmed that duckweed-derived sericin significantly enha
 nced the assessed functional endpoints\, outperforming commercial sericin.
 \nThis work establishes proof-of-concept for duckweed as a scalable\, plan
 t-based platform for producing functional recombinant sericin via a mild e
 xtraction route\, offering a sustainable\, cost-effective alternative to c
 onventional methods with broader implications for recombinant protein prod
 uction in plants and downstream biomaterial applications.\n\nhttps://indic
 o.unina.it/event/117/contributions/2937/
LOCATION:Department of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Napoli F
 ederico II\, Portici\, Italy Sala Cinese
URL:https://indico.unina.it/event/117/contributions/2937/
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