Immunogenicity analysis of rotavirus VP7U gene expression in carrots

Rotavirus is a diarrhea virus that is hazard to human health, and there are no effective drugs to control. In this study, firstly, some optimized codon of rotavirus VP7 gene (VP7U gene) were integrated into carrot (Daucus carota) plants, to increase the amount of protein expression and then detect protein expression of modified gene of carrot by PCR, Westernblot, and ELISA methods. Secondly, using different concentrations of positive VP7U carrots protein to drench mice, the mice that drenched normal carrot plant protein were taken as negative control, drenched positive bacterial proteins as positive control, and then detected the content of IgG in mice after 4 times drenching by ELISA method. The results showed that the modified VP7U genes of carrot plants had increased on target antigen expression and its levels. LgG content in mice of drenching positive proteins were higher than those with negative carrot proteins, while were lower than those with positive bacterial proteins. However, there was no significant difference for the IgG content in between positive control and negative control. There are many difficulties for the development of transgenic carrot oral vaccine, which need further study.