Researchers claim that a vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), produced in genetically engineered tomato and tobacco plants, triggers anti-SARS antibodies in mice. They were able to manipulate a tomato plant and a low-nicotine tobacco plant to express a fragment of the virus' S protein. When they fed mice the fruit of the tomato expressing this fragment, the animals produced SARS-specific antibodies. Production of antibodies also occurred after injection with a tobacco-derived fragment.
SARS Outbrake
