Validation of leaf and microbial pectinases: commercial launching of a new platform technology

Almost all current genetically modified plant commercial products are derived from seeds. The first protein product made in leaves for commercial use is reported here. Leaf pectinases are validated here with eight liquid commercial microbial enzyme products for textile or juice industry applications. Leaf pectinases are functional in broad pH/temperature ranges as crude leaf extracts, while most commercial enzyme products showed significant loss at alkaline pH or higher temperature, essential for various textile applications. In contrast to commercial liquid enzymes requiring cold storage/transportation, leaf pectinase powder was stored up to 16 months at ambient temperature without loss of enzyme activity. Commercial pectinase products showed much higher enzyme protein PAGE than crude leaf extracts with comparable enzyme activity without protease inhibitors. Natural cotton fibre does not absorb water due to hydrophobic nature of waxes and pectins. After bioscouring with pectinase, measurement of contact‐angle water droplet absorption by the FAMAS videos showed 33 or 63 (leaf pectinase), 61 or 64 (commercial pectinase) milliseconds, well below the 10‐second industry requirements. First marker‐free lettuce plants expressing pectinases were also created by removal of the antibiotic resistance aadA gene. Leaf pectinase powder efficiently clarified orange juice pulp similar to several microbial enzyme products. Commercial pilot scale biomass production of tobacco leaves expressing different pectinases showed that hydroponic growth at Fraunhofer yielded 10 times lower leaf biomass per plant than soil‐grown plants in the greenhouse. Pectinase enzyme yield from the greenhouse plants was double that of Fraunhofer. Thus, this leaf‐production platform offers a novel, low‐cost approach for enzyme production by elimination of fermentation, purification, concentration, formulation and cold chain.