Transient Gene Expression in Molecular Farming and Functional Genomics of Tea (Camellia sinensis): A Review

Tea (Camellia sinensis) protein has piqued frequent interest because of its possible health benefits. In general, plants are theoretically capable of generating any protein with the assistance of molecular tools if they acquire the necessary gene. As a result, the first step in producing a product or developing a novel characteristic is to introduce the right gene into the plant. Transient expression is a conventional alternative technique for stable plant transformation. In this approach, several copies of the transgene are delivered into the plant cell and subsequently transcribed and translated. The expression of the inserted gene is unaffected by the epigenetic factors or the gene location since it is not integrated into the genome. Transient expression represents a practical approach for attempting functional analyses on genes such as overexpression, silencing, gene expression networks, protein localization, promoter analysis, biosynthetic pathway discovery, and so on. In addition, this process is employed in biotechnological industries, like the synthesis of recombinant proteins. The transient transformation is accomplished in a variety of ways, many of which overlap. Therefore, a mixture of these techniques can be utilized for temporary expression. This paper reviews the benefits and drawbacks of several temporary tea transformation approaches, the most current advancements in this technique, as well as the potential and constraints of transient expression application in research and industry.