Duckweed, an Efficient Green Bio-Factory for the Production of Recombinant Proteins

Molecular farming is an inexpensive modern technology, recently being applied for manufacturing medicinally important proteins in plants. Duckweed has been recently emerged as an attractive plant-based platform for production of recombinant proteins. Smaller size, fast clonal expansion, simple aseptic cultivation, and the production of high biomass in a confined space are some unique characters identified in duckweed. Additionally, duckweeds exhibits remarkable adaptability and highly efficient genetic transformation/regeneration ability. These unique characteristics collectively contribute to the suitability of duckweeds as a well suited platform for manufacturing plant-based biopharmaceutical products. This review provides an update on the recent advances and application of this valuable plant in molecular farming along with the advancement in technologies to enhance protein production. It also discusses the emergence of duckweeds as an attractive alternative plant-based platform for producing recombinant proteins and as a resilient biological reactor with numerous practical uses. Its ditinctive features may open the path to success in plant molecular farming.