Data from: Streamlined molecular farming of plant virus therapeutics for space flight and other low-resource environments
Data files
Jul 20, 2026 version files 11.10 MB
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Figure_3A.csv
9.09 MB
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Figure_3E.xlsx
9.22 KB
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Figure_3F.xlsx
9.05 KB
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Figure_4A.xlsx
10.50 KB
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Figure_4B.xlsx
10.43 KB
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Figure_5D.xlsx
9.74 KB
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Figure_5F.csv
1.95 MB
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README.md
7.09 KB
Abstract
The resupply of pharmaceuticals during long-term space missions is challenging due to long travel distances and the reduced shelf-life of pharmaceuticals under extraterrestrial conditions. On-demand pharmaceutical production using plants could address this limitation. Plants are already cultivated in space, but the production of pharmaceuticals in plants is hampered by traditionally complex purification processes. Here, we describe a simplified production and purification strategy for cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV), a plant virus-based therapeutic candidate with strong immunomodulatory properties suitable for cancer therapy and vaccine development. By combining vacuum infiltration and centrifugation, intact CPMV particles were recovered from the apoplast without damaging the plant tissue, eliminating the need for tissue disruption. Impurities in apoplast eluates were efficiently removed by ultrafiltration/diafiltration, exploiting the size difference between CPMV and contaminants. The process was scalable when applied to more than 50 plants. We assessed the robustness of this production process under simulated space conditions, including microgravity, temperature shifts, and exposure to reactive oxygen species (ROS). Microgravity altered plant morphology, whereas temperature changes and ROS stress affected CPMV yields in a time-dependent manner. Beyond applications in space, these findings enable terrestrial strategies for plant molecular farming in low-resource environments.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.12jm63zd5
Description of the data and file structure
The following files contain the raw datasets required to reproduce the analyses presented in the article “Streamlined molecular farming of plant virus therapeutics for space flight and other low-resource environments". This article was authored by Patrick Opdensteinen, Kyle Lewin, Anshal Jain, Andrew Copeland, Jonathan Copeland, Maziar Ghazinejad, and Nicole F. Steinmetz (University of California, San Diego, CA, USA) for NPJ Science of Plants (2026).
These data support an investigation into the production and purification of cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) from plants using a simplified apoplast extraction process. CPMV particles were recovered from infected plants through vacuum infiltration and centrifugation without disrupting plant tissue, followed by ultrafiltration/diafiltration to remove impurities. The resulting viral particle samples were analyzed to evaluate process scalability and robustness under simulated space conditions, including microgravity, temperature shifts, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) exposure.
The raw data included in this repository correspond to the measurements used to generate the figures and statistical analyses reported in the publication and are intended to be reproducible using the provided data. Methods used to assess the streamlined production and purification of cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) include vacuum infiltration, apoplast extraction by centrifugation, ultrafiltration/diafiltration, and analyses of plant growth, virus yield, and process performance under simulated spaceflight conditions, including microgravity, temperature shifts, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) exposure.
Files and variables
File: Figure_3A.csv
Description: This file contains comma-separated values (.csv) that represent the raw data used to produce Figure 3A of the reference paper. The data lists local acceleration vectors recorded by a random positioning machine (RPM) during simulation of gravity during spaceflight.
Variables
- accel_X: acceleration in x coordinate (m/s²)
- accel_y: acceleration in y coordinate (m/s²)
- accel_z: acceleration in z coordinate (m/s²)
- enoder_a: tracks speed and distance of the rotation
- encoder_b: tracks direction of the rotation
- t: time (data is recorded every 0.8 seconds)
File: Figure_3E.xlsx
Description: This file is an Excel spreadsheet that contains the raw data used to produce the graph shown in Figure 3E of the reference paper. These data were collected through chlorophyll content analysis of primary leaves from uninfected and Cowpea Mosaic Virus(CPMV)-infected black-eyed pea plants following 14 days under simulated space conditions and, for some, exposure to reactive oxygen species (ROS).
Variables
- CPMV: Cowpea Mosaic Virus
- ROS: Reactive Oxygen Species
- g: gravity conditions in the experiment (1xg = regular gravity; 0xg = simulated microgravity)
File: Figure_3F.xlsx
Description: This file is an Excel spreadsheet that contains the raw data used to produce the graph shown in Figure 3F of the reference paper. These data were collected through chlorophyll content analysis of secondary leaves from uninfected and Cowpea Mosaic Virus(CPMV)-infected black-eyed pea plants following 14 days under simulated space conditions and, for some, exposure to reactive oxygen species (ROS).
Variables
- CPMV: Cowpea Mosaic Virus
- ROS: Reactive Oxygen Species
- g: gravity conditions in the experiment (1xg = regular gravity; 0xg = simulated microgravity, )
File: Figure_4A.xlsx
Description: This file is an Excel spreadsheet that contains the raw data used to produce the graphic shown in Figure 4A of the reference paper. These data detail the effect of temperature and reactive oxygen species (ROS) stress on Cowpea Mosaic Virus (CPMV) accumulation in blender extracts of primary leaves from CPMV-infected plants.
Variables
- g/L: grams per Liter
- CPMV: Cowpea Mosaic Virus
- C: Temperature (degree Celcius)
- ROS: Reactive Oxygen Species
File: Figure_4B.xlsx
Description: This file is an Excel spreadsheet that contains the raw data used to produce the graphic shown in Figure 4B of the reference paper. These data detail the effect of temperature and reactive oxygen species (ROS) stress on Cowpea Mosaic Virus (CPMV) accumulation in apoplast eluates of primary leaves from CPMV-infected plants.
Variables
- g/L: grams per Liter
- CPMV: Cowpea Mosaic Virus
- C: Temperature (degree Celcius)
- ROS: Reactive Oxygen Species
File: Figure_5D.xlsx
Description: This file is an Excel spreadsheet that contains the raw data used to produce the graph shown in Figure 5D of the reference paper. These data detail the densitometric analysis profile of apoplast eluates from Cowpea Mosaic Virus (CPMV)-infected black-eyed pea plants using alkaline, neutral and acidic buffers. The dataset was collected to analyze CPMV recovery under variable conditions.
Variables
- Lane: The defined area of analysis (a vertical column) where a sample was loaded and separated
- Peak: A detected band within a lane, represented as a peak on a 1D optical density profile graph
- Dist.: The migration distance of a peak (pixels)
- Width: The width of the peak profile (pixels)
- Height: The maximum optical intensity of the peak (relative intensity units)
- Area: The total integrated area under the peak curve (area/integrated optical Density)
- %: The relative abundance of a specific peak compared to the sum of all peaks within that specific lane (%)
- Rf: The relative migration distance of a band
- Adj. Rf: The adjusted relative migration distance of a band
- KPO4: Potassium phosphate buffer
- MES: MES buffer (2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid) buffer
- CPMV: Cowpea mosaic virus
- pH: Quantitative measure of the acidity or basicity of aqueous solutions
File: Figure_5F.csv
Description: This file contains comma-separated values (.csv) that represent the raw data used to produce Figure 5F in the reference paper. The data detail the size exclusion chromatography (SEC) elution profile of Cowpea Mosaic Virus (CPMV) purified from apoplast eluates at pH 7.0. These data were collected to characterize the extracted CPMV product.
Variables
- UV 1_260: absorbance at 260 nm
- UV 2_280: absorbance at 280 nm
- ml: milliliter(s)
- mAU: milli Absorbance Units
Code/software
The files in this dataset are provided as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx) or comma-separated value (.csv) files. The files can be opened and viewed using Microsoft Excel or other software capable of reading .xlsx and .csv formats (e.g., LibreOffice Calc, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers). No custom code, scripts, or specialized software are required to access or interpret the data files.