A technology platform for the fast production of monoclonal recombinant antibodies against plant proteins and peptides.

The application of recombinant antibodies in plant biology research is limited because plant researchers have minimal access to high-quality phage display libraries. Therefore, we constructed a library of 1.3×1010 clones displaying human single-chain variable fragments (scFvs) that is available to the academic community. The scFvs selected from the library against a diverse set of plant proteins showed moderate to high antigen-binding affinity together with high specificity. Moreover, to optimize an scFv as immunodetection agent, two expression systems that allow efficient production and purification of bivalent scFv–Fc and scFv–CκZIP fusion proteins were integrated. We are convinced that this antibody platform will further stimulate applications of recombinant antibodies such as the diagnostic detection or immunomodulation of specific antigens in plants.