Obtaining of the transgenic Heliantus tuberosus L. plants, callus and “hairy” root cultures able to express the recombinant human interferon alpha-2b gene

This work is the first to our knowledge to describe the successful attempt of Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated transformation of topinambour in order to obtain the transgenic H. tuberosus plants, callus and “hairy” root cultures. The plasmid vectors contained the sequence of interferon gene fused with Nicotiana plumbaginifolia L. calreticulin apoplast targeting signal driven by 35S CaMV promoter or root-specific Mll promoter. Nearly 75% obtained isolated Ri-root lines and callus cultures were proved (by PCR analysis) to contain HuINFα-2b transgene. We also managed to obtain H. tuberosus transgenic plants through somatic embryogenesis on the transgenic “hairy” root culture. The obtained transgenic H. tuberosus cultures exhibited highlevel antiviral activity that ranged from 2000 to 54500 IU/g FW that makes this crop considered a promising source of recombinant interferon alpha 2b protein.