Abstract
Sugar, the most popular sweetener, is essential in daily food. However, excessive sugar intake has been associated with several lifestyle-related diseases. Finding healthier and more economical alternatives to sugars and artificial sweeteners has received increasing attention to fulfill the growing demand. Brazzein, which comes from the pulp of the edible fruit of the African plant Pentadiplandra brazzeana Baill, is a protein that is 2,000 times sweeter than sucrose by weight. Here we report the production of transgenic mice that carry the optimized brazzein gene driven by the goat Beta-casein promoter, which specifically directs gene expression in the mammary glands. Using western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry, we confirmed that brazzein could be efficiently expressed in mammalian milk, while retaining its sweetness. This study presents the possibility of producing plant protein–sweetened milk from large animals such as cattle and goats.
Highlights
Palatal disposition towards sweet food is common to many animals including humans
The transgenes were expressed under the control of the cytomegalovirus enhancer and chicken Beta-actin (CAG) promoter
We demonstrated that the plant gene, which encodes the sweet protein brazzein, can be actively expressed in transgenic mouse milk and that the recombinant brazzein protein retains palatable sweetness
Summary
Palatal disposition towards sweet food is common to many animals including humans. excessive sucrose intake has been attributed to several lifestyle-related diseases, such as dental caries, obesity, and diabetes mellitus. Six sweet proteins have been described as: thaumatin, monellin, mabinlin, pentadin, brazzein, and curculin [1]. Of these six proteins, brazzein has the smallest molecular weight and the highest heat resistance as well as good solubility. Brazzein has the smallest molecular weight and the highest heat resistance as well as good solubility It comes from the West African plant Pentadiplandra brazzeana Baill and is distributed in the pulp of the fruit, which turns from green to red during ripening. Brazzein is intrinsically 2,000 times sweeter than 2% sucrose solution. The brazzein content of ripe fruits is approximately 0.2% to 0.05% by weight [3]
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