Engineering the Common Soybean (Glycine max) to Biosynthesize Alpha-lactalbumin

Statham, Elena

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Engineering the Common Soybean (Glycine max) to Biosynthesize Alpha-lactalbumin Pubblico Deposited

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Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/zw12z694g

Abstract

6 billion people drink cow’s milk worldwide. There are tons of dietary benefits to cow’s milk as it is a strong source of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and nutrients, and it contains all the essential amino acids. The dairy industry is booming, producing hundreds of million metric tons of milk worldwide every year. The cows producing this milk often undergo abuse such as continuous forced impregnation, over-milking, malnourishment, and restrictive confinement. Additionally, the dairy farm industry is responsible for approximately 2.9% of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions due to the methane cows produce. To reduce the abuse of the dairy industry and reduce greenhouse gas emissions other ways of producing cow’s milk are being researched. Current research has been aimed at synthetically producing the major proteins, particularly the whey proteins, of cow’s milk in alternative host organisms such as yeast and E.coli. However, these organisms are unable to produce such proteins at a cost-effective and large enough scale to be profitable over current dairy cow farming. Little research has been done outside of these microbial hosts. We hypothesize that Glycine max, the common soybean, can efficiently produce the whey proteins of cow’s milk, with cheaper production and larger yields than current methods. This research found that the whey protein, α-lactalbumin, can be transformed into agrobacterium, but further experiments are needed to determine α-lactalbuminprotein production inside a soybean. The costs and yields available through this synthetic farming method would then be researched for possible industrial production of synthetic cow’s milk

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