The increasing use of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in diagnostic reagents necessitates efficient and cost-effective mAb production methods. In blood banks, one of the most routinely used reagents is the antihuman IgG reagent used for the detection of nonagglutinating antibodies. Here we report the production of a functional, purified anti-human IgG, through the expression of its encoding genes in perennial transgenic alfalfa. Transgenic plants expressing the light- and heavy-chain encoding mRNAs were obtained, and plants from crosses were found to express fully assembled C5-1. The purification procedure yielded mainly the H2L2 form with specificity and affinity identical to those of hybridoma-derived C5-1. The ability to accumulate the antibody was maintained both in parental F1 lines during repeated harvesting and in clonal material; the antibody was stable in the drying hay as in extracts made in pure water. Also, plant and hybridoma-derived C5-1 had similar in vivo half-lives in mice. These results indicate that plant C5-1 could be used in a diagnostic reagent as effectively as hybridoma-derived C5-1, and demonstrates the usefulness of perennial systems for the cost-effective, stable, and reliable production of large amounts of mAbs.