High-value pharmaceutical products are already successfully produced in contained facilities using Agrobacterium-mediated transient transformation of plants. However, transfection methods suitable for open field applications are still desirable as a cheaper alternative. Biosafety concerns related to the use of recombinant agrobacteria in an industrial transfection process include possible transformation or transfection of unintended hosts or spread of the genetically modified agrobacteria in the environment. In this paper, we explored a novel biocontrol approach resulting in greater biosafety of the transient expression process in plants. Our proposed solution involves inducible expression of Agrobacterium tumefaciens toxin PemK and antitoxin PemI that provides for strictly regulated T-DNA transfer from agrobacteria to plants. We also identified several other toxins from putative Agrobacterium toxin-antitoxin modules and demonstrate their potential usefulness in the control of Agrobacterium tumefaciens as a DNA vector.

利用农杆菌介导的植物瞬时转化，已经在封闭的设施中成功生产了高价值药品。然而，仍然希望适合于开放领域应用的转染方法作为更便宜的选择。与在工业转染过程中使用重组农杆菌有关的生物安全性问题包括意外宿主的可能转化或转染或基因修饰农杆菌在环境中的传播。在本文中，我们探索了一种新颖的生物控制方法，该方法可提高植物瞬时表达过程的生物安全性。我们提出的解决方案涉及根癌农杆菌的诱导表达毒素PemK和抗毒素PemI，可提供从农杆菌到植物的严格调节的T-DNA转移。我们还从推定的农杆菌毒素-抗毒素模块中鉴定了其他几种毒素，并证明了它们在控制根癌农杆菌作为DNA载体中的潜在用途。