{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,5]],"date-time":"2026-04-05T18:14:20Z","timestamp":1775412860133,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":58,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,12]],"date-time":"2021-02-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1613088000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Youth Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["31401949"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["31401949"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Plants"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant public health crisis all over the world. The rapid spreading nature and high mortality rate of COVID-19 places a huge pressure on scientists to develop effective diagnostics and therapeutics to control the pandemic. Some scientists working on plant biotechnology together with commercial enterprises for the emergency manufacturing of diagnostics and therapeutics have aimed to fulfill the rapid demand for SARS-CoV-2 protein antigen and antibody through a rapid, scalable technology known as transient\/stable expression in plants. Plant biotechnology using transient\/stable expression offers a rapid solution to address this crisis through the production of low-cost diagnostics, antiviral drugs, immunotherapy, and vaccines. Transient\/stable expression technology for manufacturing plant-based biopharmaceuticals is already established at commercial scale. Here, current opinions regarding how plant biotechnology can help fight against COVID-19 through the production of low-cost diagnostics and therapeutics are discussed.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/plants10020352","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,12]],"date-time":"2021-02-12T22:41:25Z","timestamp":1613169685000},"page":"352","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":17,"title":["COVID-19 Crisis: How Can Plant Biotechnology Help?"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8799-4401","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Md. Jahidul Islam","family":"Shohag","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Environmental and Resources Science, Zhejiang University, Ministry of Education (MOE) Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Ecosystem Health, Hangzhou 310058, China"},{"name":"Department of Agriculture, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University, Gopalganj 8100, Bangladesh"},{"name":"Indian River Research and Education Center, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Fort Pierce, FL 34945, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Farhana Zerin","family":"Khan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Environmental and Resources Science, Zhejiang University, Ministry of Education (MOE) Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Ecosystem Health, Hangzhou 310058, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lin","family":"Tang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Environmental and Resources Science, Zhejiang University, Ministry of Education (MOE) Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Ecosystem Health, Hangzhou 310058, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yanyan","family":"Wei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Environmental and Resources Science, Zhejiang University, Ministry of Education (MOE) Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Ecosystem Health, Hangzhou 310058, China"},{"name":"Cultivation Base of Guangxi Key Laboratory for Agro-Environment and Agro-Products Safety, College of Agriculture, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7761-2070","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhenli","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Environmental and Resources Science, Zhejiang University, Ministry of Education (MOE) Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Ecosystem Health, Hangzhou 310058, China"},{"name":"Indian River Research and Education Center, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Fort Pierce, FL 34945, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xiaoe","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Environmental and Resources Science, Zhejiang University, Ministry of Education (MOE) Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Ecosystem Health, Hangzhou 310058, China"},{"name":"Indian River Research and Education Center, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Fort Pierce, FL 34945, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"WHO (2020). Coronavirus Disease (COVID-2019) Situation Reports, World Health Organization."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"76","DOI":"10.1038\/342076a0","article-title":"Production of antibodies in transgenic plants","volume":"342","author":"Hiatt","year":"1989","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gleba, Y.Y., Tus\u00e9, D., and Giritch, A. (2013). Plant viral vectors for delivery by Agrobacterium. Plant Viral Vectors, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/82_2013_352"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"51","DOI":"10.1007\/s11103-013-0036-1","article-title":"The pEAQ vector series: The easy and quick way to produce recombinant proteins in plants","volume":"83","author":"Peyret","year":"2013","journal-title":"Plant Mol. Biol."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"204","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1750-2659.2011.00295.x","article-title":"A plant-based system for rapid production of influenza vaccine antigens","volume":"6","author":"Shoji","year":"2012","journal-title":"Influenza Other Resp. Viruses"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"47","DOI":"10.1038\/nature13777","article-title":"Reversion of advanced Ebola virus disease in nonhuman primates with ZMapp","volume":"514","author":"Qiu","year":"2014","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2575","DOI":"10.1002\/bit.24523","article-title":"Predictive models for transient protein expression in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) can optimize process time, yield, and downstream costs","volume":"109","author":"Buyel","year":"2012","journal-title":"Biotechnol. Bioeng."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"867","DOI":"10.1002\/btpr.2415","article-title":"Bioreactor productivity and media cost comparison for different intensified cell culture processes","volume":"33","author":"Xu","year":"2017","journal-title":"Biotechnol. Prog."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1106","DOI":"10.1111\/pbi.12416","article-title":"Regulatory approval and a first-in-human phase I clinical trial of a monoclonal antibody produced in transgenic tobacco plants","volume":"13","author":"Ma","year":"2015","journal-title":"Plant Biotechnol. J."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1094","DOI":"10.1111\/pbi.12438","article-title":"From gene to harvest: Insights into upstream process development for the GMP production of a monoclonal antibody in transgenic tobacco plants","volume":"13","author":"Sack","year":"2015","journal-title":"Plant Biotechnol. J."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1180","DOI":"10.1111\/pbi.12469","article-title":"Commercial-scale biotherapeutics manufacturing facility for plant-made pharmaceuticals","volume":"13","author":"Holtz","year":"2015","journal-title":"Plant Biotechnol. J."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"449","DOI":"10.1177\/2211068212460037","article-title":"Automated production of plant-based vaccines and pharmaceuticals","volume":"17","author":"Wirz","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Lab. Autom."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"458","DOI":"10.1016\/j.biotechadv.2017.03.011","article-title":"Very-large-scale production of antibodies in plants: The biologization of manufacturing","volume":"35","author":"Buyel","year":"2017","journal-title":"Biotechnol. Adv."},{"key":"ref_14","first-page":"1","article-title":"The biosafety of molecular farming in plants","volume":"5","author":"Commandeur","year":"2003","journal-title":"AgBiotechNet"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"658","DOI":"10.1007\/s13238-014-0086-4","article-title":"The recombinant expression systems for structure determination of eukaryotic membrane proteins","volume":"5","author":"He","year":"2014","journal-title":"Protein Cell"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"926","DOI":"10.1093\/glycob\/cww023","article-title":"Plant protein glycosylation","volume":"26","author":"Strasser","year":"2016","journal-title":"Glycobiology"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"635","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tplants.2020.04.009","article-title":"Potential Applications of Plant Biotechnology against SARS-CoV-2","volume":"25","author":"Capell","year":"2020","journal-title":"Trends Plant. Sci."},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"LES (2020, December 10). COVID-19: What We\u2019re Doing. Available online: https:\/\/www.leafexpressionsystems.com\/covid-19\/."},{"key":"ref_19","unstructured":"BAT (2020, December 10). BAT Makes Progress on COVID-19 Vaccine & Provides Community Support. Available online: https:\/\/www.bat.com\/group\/sites\/UK__9D9KCY.nsf\/vwPagesWebLive\/DOBPMBZC."},{"key":"ref_20","unstructured":"iBio (2020, December 10). iBio Announces Development of Proprietary COVID-19 Vaccine Candidates. Available online: https:\/\/www.ibioinc.com\/therapeutics-and-vaccines#covid-19-overview."},{"key":"ref_21","unstructured":"Medicago (2020, December 10). COVID-19 Vaccine and Antibody Development Program. Available online: https:\/\/www.medicago.com\/en\/covid-19-programs\/."},{"key":"ref_22","first-page":"218","article-title":"Development of a novel recombinant encapsidated RNA particle: Evaluation as an internal control for diagnostic RT-PCR","volume":"146","author":"King","year":"2007","journal-title":"J. V. Methods"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"351","DOI":"10.1080\/15321819.2018.1515775","article-title":"A brief review of monoclonal antibody technology and its representative applications in immunoassays","volume":"39","author":"Gao","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Immunoass. Immunochem."},{"key":"ref_24","unstructured":"Yuan, Y., Lin, Z.-T., Wang, H., Hong, X., Heon, M., and Wu, T. (2017). Protein arrays. Functional Genomics, Springer."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"545","DOI":"10.1080\/14712598.2020.1752177","article-title":"Will plant-made biopharmaceuticals play a role in the fight against COVID-19?","volume":"20","year":"2020","journal-title":"Expert. Opin. Biol."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"811","DOI":"10.1002\/ptr.6024","article-title":"Antiviral potential of medicinal plants against HIV, HSV, influenza, hepatitis, and coxsackievirus: A systematic review","volume":"32","author":"Akram","year":"2018","journal-title":"Phytother. Res."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"174","DOI":"10.1016\/j.copbio.2011.08.007","article-title":"Polyphenols as antimicrobial agents","volume":"23","author":"Daglia","year":"2012","journal-title":"Curr. Opin. Biotechnol."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Irwin, K.K., Renzette, N., Kowalik, T.F., and Jensen, J.D.J.V. (2016). Antiviral drug resistance as an adaptive process. Virus Evol., 2.","DOI":"10.1093\/ve\/vew014"},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2511","DOI":"10.1128\/JVI.02322-09","article-title":"Broad-spectrum in vitro activity and in vivo efficacy of the antiviral protein griffithsin against emerging viruses of the family Coronaviridae","volume":"84","author":"Giomarelli","year":"2010","journal-title":"J. Virol."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"9345","DOI":"10.1074\/jbc.M411122200","article-title":"Isolation and characterization of griffithsin, a novel HIV-inactivating protein, from the red alga Griffithsia sp","volume":"280","author":"Mori","year":"2005","journal-title":"J. Biol. Chem."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"120","DOI":"10.1128\/AAC.01407-13","article-title":"Activity of and effect of subcutaneous treatment with the broad-spectrum antiviral lectin griffithsin in two laboratory rodent models","volume":"58","author":"Barton","year":"2014","journal-title":"Antimicrob. Agents. Chemother."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.antiviral.2016.07.011","article-title":"Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection is inhibited by griffithsin","volume":"133","author":"Millet","year":"2016","journal-title":"Antivir. Res."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"601","DOI":"10.1080\/22221751.2020.1739565","article-title":"Emerging WuHan (COVID-19) coronavirus: Glycan shield and structure prediction of spike glycoprotein and its interaction with human CD26","volume":"9","author":"Vankadari","year":"2020","journal-title":"Emerg. Microbes. Infect."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"281","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cell.2020.02.058","article-title":"Structure, Function, and Antigenicity of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein","volume":"181","author":"Walls","year":"2020","journal-title":"Cell"},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2578","DOI":"10.1021\/bi0205698","article-title":"A potent novel anti-HIV protein from the cultured cyanobacterium Scytonema varium","volume":"42","author":"Bokesch","year":"2003","journal-title":"Biochemistry"},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.antiviral.2014.09.012","article-title":"The cyanobacterial lectin scytovirin displays potent in vitro and in vivo activity against Zaire Ebola virus","volume":"112","author":"Garrison","year":"2014","journal-title":"Antivir. Res."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6099","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.0901506106","article-title":"Scaleable manufacture of HIV-1 entry inhibitor griffithsin and validation of its safety and efficacy as a topical microbicide component","volume":"106","author":"Vojdani","year":"2009","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1427","DOI":"10.1111\/pbi.12507","article-title":"Rice endosperm is cost-effective for the production of recombinant griffithsin with potent activity against HIV","volume":"14","author":"Vamvaka","year":"2016","journal-title":"Plant Biotechnol. J."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1225","DOI":"10.1007\/s11248-013-9730-7","article-title":"Transformation of Althaea officinalis L. by Agrobacterium rhizogenes for the production of transgenic roots expressing the anti-HIV microbicide cyanovirin-N","volume":"22","author":"Drake","year":"2013","journal-title":"Transgenic Res."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"884","DOI":"10.1111\/pbi.12309","article-title":"Engineering soya bean seeds as a scalable platform to produce cyanovirin-N, a non-ARV microbicide against HIV","volume":"13","author":"Murad","year":"2015","journal-title":"Plant Biotechnol J."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"356","DOI":"10.1096\/fj.05-4742fje","article-title":"Transgenic plant production of Cyanovirin-N, an HIV microbicide","volume":"20","author":"Sexton","year":"2006","journal-title":"FASEB J."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1309","DOI":"10.1007\/s00299-016-1963-5","article-title":"Cyanovirin-N produced in rice endosperm offers effective pre-exposure prophylaxis against HIV-1 BaL infection in vitro","volume":"35","author":"Vamvaka","year":"2016","journal-title":"Plant Cell Rep."},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3590","DOI":"10.1096\/fj.09-131995","article-title":"Design, expression, and characterization of a multivalent, combination HIV microbicide","volume":"23","author":"Sexton","year":"2009","journal-title":"FASEB J."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"E7854","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1806022115","article-title":"Unexpected synergistic HIV neutralization by a triple microbicide produced in rice endosperm","volume":"115","author":"Vamvaka","year":"2018","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"9490","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2004168117","article-title":"Effectiveness of convalescent plasma therapy in severe COVID-19 patients","volume":"117","author":"Duan","year":"2020","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1582","DOI":"10.1001\/jama.2020.4783","article-title":"Treatment of 5 Critically Ill Patients With COVID-19 With Convalescent Plasma","volume":"323","author":"Shen","year":"2020","journal-title":"JAMA"},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"49","DOI":"10.3233\/HAB-150284","article-title":"The emergence of antibody therapies for Ebola","volume":"23","author":"Hiatt","year":"2015","journal-title":"Hum. Antibodies"},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"17","DOI":"10.7774\/cevr.2015.4.1.17","article-title":"Ebola outbreak in Western Africa 2014: What is going on with Ebola virus?","volume":"4","author":"Na","year":"2015","journal-title":"Cli. Exp. Vaccine Res."},{"key":"ref_49","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"189","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-7652.2007.00306.x","article-title":"Recombinant antibody 2G12 produced in maize endosperm efficiently neutralizes HIV-1 and contains predominantly single-GlcNAc N-glycans","volume":"6","author":"Rademacher","year":"2008","journal-title":"Plant Biotechnol. J."},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3727","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.0708841104","article-title":"Cost-effective production of a vaginal protein microbicide to prevent HIV transmission","volume":"105","author":"Ramessar","year":"2008","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"ref_51","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"18","DOI":"10.1038\/s41541-020-0170-0","article-title":"The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia calls for viral vaccines","volume":"5","author":"Shang","year":"2020","journal-title":"NPJ Vaccines"},{"key":"ref_52","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gralinski, L.E., and Menachery, V.D. (2020). Return of the Coronavirus: 2019-nCoV. Viruses, 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/v12020135"},{"key":"ref_53","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wan, Y., Shang, J., Graham, R., Baric, R.S., and Li, F. (2020). Receptor Recognition by the Novel Coronavirus from Wuhan: An Analysis Based on Decade-Long Structural Studies of SARS Coronavirus. J. Virol., 94.","DOI":"10.1128\/JVI.00127-20"},{"key":"ref_54","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"226","DOI":"10.1038\/nrmicro2090","article-title":"The spike protein of SARS-CoV\u2014A target for vaccine and therapeutic development","volume":"7","author":"Du","year":"2009","journal-title":"Nat. Rev. Microbiol."},{"key":"ref_55","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"352","DOI":"10.1006\/viro.1998.9315","article-title":"Expression of immunogenic glycoprotein S polypeptides from transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus in transgenic plants","volume":"249","author":"Gomez","year":"1998","journal-title":"Virology"},{"key":"ref_56","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"346","DOI":"10.1074\/mcp.M300048-MCP200","article-title":"Mass spectrometric characterization of proteins from the SARS virus: A preliminary report","volume":"2","author":"Krokhin","year":"2003","journal-title":"Mol. Cell Proteom."},{"key":"ref_57","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e1587","DOI":"10.1002\/wnan.1587","article-title":"Plant molecular farming of virus-like nanoparticles as vaccines and reagents","volume":"12","author":"Rybicki","year":"2020","journal-title":"WIREs Nanomed. Nanobiotechnol."},{"key":"ref_58","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"607","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-7652.2009.00496.x","article-title":"The production of hemagglutinin-based virus-like particles in plants: A rapid, efficient and safe response to pandemic influenza","volume":"8","author":"Couture","year":"2010","journal-title":"Plant Biotechnol. J."}],"container-title":["Plants"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2223-7747\/10\/2\/352\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T05:23:31Z","timestamp":1760160211000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2223-7747\/10\/2\/352"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,12]]},"references-count":58,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,2]]}},"alternative-id":["plants10020352"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/plants10020352","relation":{},"ISSN":["2223-7747"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2223-7747","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,12]]}}}