Story perspectives

Engineered Lettuce & Tobacco Yield Pig Myoglobin in Chloroplasts

8/6/2026

Summary

Story summary

Imperial College London researchers engineered lettuce and tobacco to express pig myoglobin by inserting optimized genes into chloroplasts.
The transgenic lettuce produced about 810 mg and tobacco about 800 mg myoglobin per kilogram of dry weight.
The myoglobin gene was inherited by offspring while the plants stayed healthy, fertile and photosynthetically normal.
Researchers note that heme availability limits yields.
They plan to engineer the heme pathway to increase production.

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Story summary

Imperial College London researchers engineered lettuce and tobacco to express pig myoglobin by inserting optimized genes into chloroplasts.
The transgenic lettuce produced about 810 mg and tobacco about 800 mg myoglobin per kilogram of dry weight.
The myoglobin gene was inherited by offspring while the plants stayed healthy, fertile and photosynthetically normal.
Researchers note that heme availability limits yields.
They plan to engineer the heme pathway to increase production.