Transfer of human proinsulin gene into cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) via agrobacterium method

Abstract

Nowadays, approximately 5.8% in adult population around the world are suffering by diabetes. It can be caused by an increase in risk factors such as being overweight. Also it has been estimated that the number of patients will be doubled in near future and the demands for insulin hormone will be growing up by 3 to 4 % annually. Therefore, it's necessary to develop new methods for hormone production with high rate of capacity in future. By advanced technology of transgenic DNA, the transgenic plants are introduced as an attractive system for expression and production of many kinds of pharmaceutical proteins. In this study, we investigated transfer of Human Proinsulin Gene into the Cucumber (Cucumissativus L.). Transgenic cucumber could be a great prospect for future source of eatable insulin pharmaceutical drugs to be taken by patients.Agrobacterium tumefaciensstrain LBA4404 carrying proinsulin genes with CaMV 35S promoter was used for the transformation purpose. The transgenic plants were analyzed by PCR, RT-PCR, SDS-PAGE, Dot blot and Electrochemiluminescence techniques. Production of proinsulin in cucumber could be a great prospect in molecular farming of human proinsulin.