When the gene of interest is added to agrobacterium we add a selective marker – for example an antibiotic resistance gene. The selective factor is commonly an antibiotic which would normally kill the plant cells. Generating a whole transgenic plantĪfter innoculation with the agrobacterium, the plant tissue is cultured on media which contains antibiotics to kill the agrobacterium, as well as selective factors. The Agrobacterium then transfers the gene of interest into the DNA of the plant tissue. We inoculate Agrobacterium containing our genes of interest, onto wounded plant tissue explants. In the lab we harness the DNA transfer ability of Agrobacterium, but remove the ‘tumour forming’ genes- instead replacing these with our genes of interest. In the wild, transfer of some of the bacterial DNA causes rapid plant cell division, and the development of a plant tumour. I am going to focus on Agrobacterium as this is what I use, but I will put some articles about the use of particle guns at the bottom.Īgrobacterium is a naturally occurring soil bacteria, which has the unique ability to transfer part of its own DNA into plant cells. There are 2 main methods for gene delivery in plants Agrobacterium and the particle gun. Plant transformation involves 2 stages: Delivery of the DNA into a single cell, and regeneration into full fertile plants. This type of plant transformation is used for the longer-term research of genes, and for long-term production of a trait/compound in large scale. This post will focus on stable transformation, which is used for the stable introduction of a gene into a plant meaning the gene will be fully integrated in the host genome, so it is expressed continuously, and will also be expressed in later generations of the plant. There are two types of plant transformation In plants we use plant transformation to study the effect of certain genes, and to improve plant traits such as: yield, disease resistance, stress tolerance, and nutrient production.Įngineering plants for the future, by improving stress tolerance (to stresses such as high salt levels and drought) is an especially important area of research with the foreseeable problems farmers are soon to encounter with the changing climate due to global warming. For example, genetically modified bacteria is used for the production of synthetic insulin. One of the most important uses of genetically modified organisms is for the large scale production of medicinally important compounds. Genetic modification is used in many areas of scientific research and is widely used to modify: Yeast, bacteria, plants and mammalian cells. Why we use plant transformation technology For example, in my work I have inserted a gene called Stilbene synthase from grape into Tomato to enable the production of the medicinal compound resveratrol in high levels in tomatoes. Plant transformation is a way to insert DNA from another organism- normally another plant, into the genome of a plant of interest. You may have heard plant scientists saying they used “plant transformation” to express a gene within a target plant, but what exactly does this mean?
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