Expression of camel single-domain antibody fragments in plants to produce pathogen resistant plants.

Transgenic plants making antibodies directed against plant virusses seem to be more resistant towards the pathogen. This promising technique seems, however, to be blocked. First, only minor amounts of the antigen-binding fragments of conventional antibodies seem to be neutralising. Secondly, the expression of functional antibody fragments in plants is causing several problems. The camel antibodies formed by 2 heavy-chains instead of 2 light and 2 heavy chains in conventional antibodies will most likely overcome most of these shortcomings. These camel antibodies are easier to clone, 50% of them were enzyme neutralising, and they were succesfully expressed in tobacco plants into stable, and functional entities. In this project we intend to raise and clone camel antibodies against potivirus X and Y, as well as against enzymes from plant pathogens (cutinase). These antibody fragments will be transformed into potatoes to generate transgenic plants with increased resistence against the pathogens.