ASU SoLS Faculty: Tsafrir Mor

Assistant Professor, received a Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1997. Was a BARD Postdoctoral Associate in the Plants and Human Health Program at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Biology at Cornell University.

In the next few years the sequence of all the genes required to encode most major life forms, including bacteria, protists, plants, animals and humans will be known. In the advent of this "genomic revolution", biology is being transformed from a discipline limited by information to a science hindered only by our ability to process and utilize the overwhelming amount of sequence data gathered. The challenges facing basic science are to be able assign functions to newly discovered genes and to describe how the genetic information interacts with environmental signals to produce diverse biological phenomena.

A further challenge is to put this wealth of information to use for the benefit of humans and the environment by innovations in agriculture, medicine and engineering. In this context, plants hold a special place as they are, naturally, the basis our food supply as well the major source for medicinal compounds and raw materials. It is in this frontier of biotechnology, linking plant biology and medicine - Pharming - where the research interests of my laboratory are focused. Specifically, out interests lie in the use of plants as platforms for the production of useful, especially therapeutic, polypeptides, proteins and enzymes. .

Currently, the major thrust areas in Dr. Mor's laboratory are 1) with the sponsorship of DARPA, the evaluation of transgenic plants as a source for recombinant human acetylcholinesterase to provide protection from non-conventional warfare agents both chemical (organphosphate intoxication) and biological (as an immunomodulator); with NIH support, is to develop plant-derived vaccines against sexually-transmitted diseases with a special focus on Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

The availability of plants overexpressing acetylcholinesterase prompted us to investigate the intriguing possibility of the presence in plants of the signaling molecule acetylcholine and the enzymes involved in its metabolism.

Mor TS (1996) Dynamics of Photosystem II: Structural and Functional Aspects of Proteins Associated with the Reaction Center . Academon Press, Jerusalem

Peer-reviewed Papers:

Saldaña S , Guadarrama FE , de Jesús Olivera Flores T , Arias N , López S , Arias C , Ruiz R , Mason H , Mor T , Richte r L, Arntzen CJ and Gómez Lim MA. (2005) Production of rotavirus-like-particles in tomato ( Lycopersicon esculentum L.) fruit by expression of capsid proteins VP2 and VP6 and immunological studies. Viral Immunol (in press)

Geyer BC, Muralidharan M, Cherni I, Doran J, Fletcher SP, Evron, T, Soreq H and Mor TS (2005) Purification of Transgenic Plant-Derived Recombinant Human Acetylcholinesterase-R. Chem Biol Interact (in press)

Muralidharan M, Soreq H and Mor, TS (2005) Characterizing Pea Acetylcholinesterase. Chem Biol Interact (in press)

Matoba N, Magérus A, Geyer BC, Zhang Y, Muralidharan M, Alfsen A, Arntzen CJ, Bomsel M and Mor TS (2004) Mucosally-targeted subunit vaccine candidate eliciting HIV-1 transcytosis-blocking antibodies. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:1358413589

Fletcher SP, Geyer BC, Smith A, Evron T, Joshi L, Soreq H and Mor TS (2004) Tissue distribution of cholinesterases and anticholinesterases in native and transgenic tomato plants. Plant Mol Biol 55:33-44

Mor TS , Moon Y-S, Palmer, KE and Mason, HS (2003) Geminivirus vectors for high level expression of foreign proteins in plant cells. Biotechnol Bioeng 81: 430-437

Mason HS, Warzecha H, Mor T and Arntzen CJ (2002) Edible plant vaccines: applications for prophylactic and therapeutic molecular medicine, Trends Mol Med 8, 324-9

Mor TS , Sternfeld M, Arntzen CJ, Soreq H and Mason, HS (2001) Expression of recombinant human acetylcholinesterase in transgenic tomato plants. Biotechnol Bioeng 75:259-266

Mor TS , Gómez-Lim MA and Palmer, KE (1998) Edible plant vaccines: A concept coming of age. Trends Microbiol 6:449-453

Mor TS , Hundal T, Ohad I and Andersson B (1997) The fate of cytochrome b559 during anaerobic photoinhibition and its recovery processes Photosynth Res 53:205-213

Mor TS , Ohad I, Hirschberg J and Pakrasi HB (1995) An unusual organization of the genes encoding cytocrhome b559 in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii : psbE and psbF genes are separately transcribed from different regions of the plastid chromosome. Mol Gen Genet 246:600-604

Anbudurai PA, Mor TS , Ohad I, Shestakov SV and Pakrasi HB (1994) The ctpA gene encodes the c-terminal processing protease for the D1 of the photosystem II reaction center complex Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 91:8082-8086

Mor TS , Post AF and Ohad I (1993) The Manganese stabilizing protein (MSP) of Prochlorothrix hollandica is a hydrophobic membrane bound protein Biochim Biophys Acta 1141:206-212

Matoba N and Mor TS (2005) Plant-derived subunit vaccines, In Plant Genetic Engineering Vol. 7 B: Metabolic Engineering & Molecular Pharming ( Jaiwal PK , Ed) In Press. Studium Press, Houston

Mor TS , Mason HS, Kirk DD, Arntzen CJ and Cardineau GA (2004) Plants as a production and delivery vehicle for orally delivered subunit vaccines. In Current Vaccines 3 rd Edition (Levine M, Ed) pp 305-312, Marcel Dekker, New York

Mor TS and Mason HS (2004) Transgenic plants as a source for subunit vaccines. In: Handbook of Plant Biotechnology (Christou P and Klee H, Eds) pp 768-780, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, West Sussex

Mor TS and Soreq H (2004) Human cholinesterases from plants for detoxification. In Encyclopedia of Plant & Crop Science (Goodman RM, Ed) pp 564-567, Marcel Dekker, New York

Mor TS and Arntzen CJ (2003) Plants and Human Health: Delivery of vaccines via transgenic plants. In Plant Biotechnology 2002 and Beyond (Vasil, JK, Ed) pp 383-387, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht

Mor TS , Richter, L and Mason HS (1999) Expression of rotavirus proteins in transgenic plants. In Plant Biotechnology and In-Vitro Biology in the 21 st Century (Altman A, Ziv M and Izhar S, Eds) pp 521-524, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht

Mor TS and Arntzen CJ (1999) Pharmaceutical foodstuffs: oral immunization with transgenic plants. In Plant Biotechnology and In-Vitro Biology in the 21 st Century (Altman A, Ziv M and Izhar S, Eds) pp 17-20, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht

Domovich Y, Mor TS , Oetmüller R, Herrman RG and Ohad I (1995) Reversible dissociation of the OEC proteins from the lumenal side of the thylakoid membrane during photoinhibition and recovery. In Photosynthesis: From Light to Biosphere (Mathis P, Ed) Vol IV, pp 311-314, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht

Mor TS , Pakrasi HB and Ohad I (1995) The impact of the F26S mutation in the b subunit of cytochrome b559 on the function and stability of photosystem II in tobacco. In Photosynthesis: From Light to Biosphere (Mathis P, Ed) Vol I, pp 927-930, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht

Ohad I, Keren N, Zer H, Gong H, Mor TS , Gal A, Tal S and Domovitch Y (1993) Light induced degradation of the photochemical reaction center II D1 protein in-vivo: An integrative approach. In The Proceedings of the 41st Harden Conference on Photoinhibition of Photosynthesis From Molecular Mechanisms to the Field (Baker NR and Bowyer JR, Eds) pp 161-171, Bios Scientific Publishers, Oxford

Mor TS , Post, A F, and Ohad I (1991) Prochlorothrix hollandica is more sensitive to photoinhibition than Chlamydonomans reinhardtii . In Regulation of Chloroplast Biogenesis (Argyroudi-Akoyunoglou JH, Ed) pp 433-438, Plenum Press, New York

Mor TS , Post, A F, and Ohad I (1991) Characterization of the oxygen evolving system of Prochlorothrix hollandica . In Regulation of Chloroplast Biogenesis (Argyroudi-Akoyunoglou JH, Ed) pp 427-432, Plenum Press, New York

Gal, A, Mor TS , Hauska, G, Herrmann, R and I Ohad I (1990) LHCII kinase activity associated with Isolated Cytochrome b6/f complex. In Current Research in Photosynthesis (Baltscheffski M, Ed) Vol I pp 783-785, Kluver Academic Publishers, Dordrecht

Abstracts (since 2001, partial list)

Matoba M, Magerus A, Geyer BC, Zhang Y, Alfsen A, Arntzen CJ, Bomsel M and Mor TS . Towards an oral plant-derived HIV-1 subunit vaccine. HIV Vaccine Development: Progress and Prospects, Keystone Symposium, Banff , AB , Canada , April 9-15, 2004.

Matoba M, Magerus A, Geyer BC, Zhang Y, Alfsen A, Arntzen CJ, Bomsel M and Mor TS . Humoral immunity induced by CTB-P1 for the Prevention of HIV-1 Mucosal Transmission/infection. HIV Vaccine Development: Progress and Prospects, Keystone Symposium, Banff , AB , Canada , April 9-15, 2004.

Muralidharan, M, Fletcher, SP, Geyer , BC , Soreq, H and Mor TS (2004) Characterizing pea acetylcholinesterase. VIIIth International Meeting on Cholinesterases, Perugia , Italy , September 26-30, 2004

Matoba N, Mor TS and Arntzen CJ (2004) Heat-stable oral vaccines from transgenic plants. Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress 2004, Kyoto , Japan , May 30June 3, 2004. (Invited talk)

Fletcher SP, Geyer B, Muralidharan M, Arntzen CJ, Soreq H and Mor TS (2004) Chemical warfare countermeasures: Expression of human acetylcholinesterase in plants. Gordon Research Conference in Plant Molecular Biology, Plymouth , New Hampshire , July 18-23, 2004.

Matoba M, Magerus A, Geyer BC, Zhang Y, Alfsen A, Arntzen CJ, Bomsel M and Mor TS (2004) A subunit vaccine candidate to prevent HIV-1 transmission. HIV Vaccine Development: Progress and Prospects, Keystone Symposium, Whistler, BC, Canada , April 10-15, 2004

Fletcher SP, Geyer B, Muralidharan M, Joshi L, Soreq H and Mor TS (2003) Transgenic plants expressing human acetylcholinesterase: what they may do for us and what we may learn from them. ISPMB Congress 2003:S26-20. International Congress of Plant Molecular Biology, Barcelona , Spain , June 23-28, 2003

Fletcher SP, Geyer B, Muralidharan M, Arntzen CJ, Soreq H and Mor TS (2003) Chemical warfare countermeasures: Expression of human acetylcholinesterase in plants. In-vitro Cell Dev Biol Plant 39:28-A. Congress on in vitro Biology, Portland, Oregon, May 31-June 04, 2003. chosen for oral presentation

Matoba N, Bomsel M, Arntzen CJ and Mor TS (2003) Towards a mucosal vaccine against HIV. In-vitro Cell Dev Biol Plant 39:23-A. Congress on in vitro Biology, Portland, Oregon, May 31-June 04, 2003. chosen for oral presentation

Fletcher SP, Geyer B, Soreq H and Mor TS (2002) Acetylcholinesterase and plants: An inquiry to plant biochemistry and a biotechnology application. Plant Physiol ( Rockville ) 2002:182. Annual Meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists on Plant Biology Denver , Colorado , August 3-7, 2002

Muralidharan M, Geyer B, Soreq H and Mor TS (2002) Role for acetylcholinesterase in gravitropic responses. Plant Physiol ( Rockville ) 2002:114. Annual Meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists on Plant Biology, Denver , Colorado , August 3-7, 2002

Mor TS , Sternfeld M, Arntzen CJ, Soreq, H and Mason HS (2001) Expression of recombinant human acetylcholinesterase in transgenic plants Plant Physiol ( Rockville ) 1999:98. Annual Meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists on Plant Biology, Baltimore , Maryland , July 24-28, 1999

Manuscripts Under Review

Saldaña S, Arias N, Esquivel F, López S, Arias C, Ruiz R, Mason H, Mor TS , Richter L, Arntzen CJ and Gómez-Lim, MA (2005) Production of rotavirus-like-particles in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) fruit by expression of capsid proteins VP2 and VP6 and immunological studies. Viral Immunol

Manuscripts in Preparation

Fletcher SP, Geyer B and Mor TS Optimization of the human acetylcholinesterase gene for expression in plants

Murlidharan, M and Mor TS Characterization of pea acetylcholinesterase (longer version of the above)

Matoba, N and Mor TS Enhancing imunnogenicity of a gp41-derived peptide

Patents (Partial):

Mason HS, Palmer, K E, Hefferon, K L, Mor TS , and Arntzen CJ (2002) Geminivirus Vectors for Gene Expression in Plants In USPTO US # 6,392,121 Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Ithaca , NY (US)

Palmer K E, Mor TS , Hefferon, K Maon, H S and Arntzen CJ (1999) Gemini Virus Vectors for Gene Expression in Plants Filed on October 7, 1999 (PCT)

Mor TS , Mason HS, Soreq, H and Arntzen C J Expression of recombinant human acetylcholinesterase in transgenic plants In USPTO # US 6,770,799 Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (NY, US) and Yissum Research Development Company (Israel)

Matoba, N, Arntzen C J and Mor TS (2002) Oral and Mucosal Adjuvant as stimulant against HIV Provisional Patent application filed at the USPTO