Application of recombinant DNA technology to studies on plant secondary metabolism

This review which is concerned with the application of recombinant DNA technology to studies on plant secondary metabolism, presents the more common plant transformation strategies and shows how these genetic approaches are being used in attempts to manipulate and increase the yield of secondary metabolites, both in cultures and in transformed plants. The different plant transformation strategies reviewed here are: infection with intact Agrobacteria; particle bombardment, vacuum infiltration and floral dip; viral vectors and finally protoplast fusion. The review continues with examples of the application of several of these transformation strategies in the manipulation of secondary metabolism. These are outlined under four subheadings which include developmentally regulated genes, addition of novel genes, down-regulation of specific genes and insertion of regulatory genes. Finally, under concluding remarks, reference is made to the advances achieved in the manipulation of plant secondary metabolism and how these approaches may impact on this new

Plant Cellular and Molecular Biotechnology: Following Mariotti's Steps

This review is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Domenico Mariotti, who significantly contributed to establishing the Italian research community in Agricultural Genetics and carried out the first experiments of Agrobacterium-mediated plant genetic transformation and regeneration in Italy during the 1980s. Following his scientific interests as guiding principles, this review summarizes the recent advances obtained in plant biotechnology and fundamental research aiming to: (i) Exploit in vitro plant cell and tissue cultures to induce genetic variability and to produce useful metabolites; (ii) gain new insights into the biochemical function of Agrobacterium rhizogenes rol genes and their application to metabolite production, fruit tree transformation, and reverse genetics; (iii) improve genetic transformation in legume species, most of them recalcitrant to regeneration; (iv) untangle the potential of KNOTTED1-like homeobox (KNOX) transcription factors in plant morphogenesis as key regulators of hormonal homeostasis; and (v) elucidate the molecular mechanisms of the transition from juvenility to the adult phase in Prunus tree species

Air investigation of some alternative methods to agrobacterium and protoplast transformation for introducing exogenous genes into plants, based on the use of pollen as a vector

Some of the problems involved in the search for alternative plant transformation vectors have been examined. In particular the use of pregerminated pollen as a direct transformation vector has been investigated. It has been shown that the protocols of Hess et al (1985) and De Vet et al (1985) are not easy to repeat with the levels of success claimed by the authors, and that these methods are unlikely to find general applicability to plant transformation in unmodified form. It has not been shown conclusively that these methods do not work, although the true levels of transformation may be considerably lower than those claimed. Some of the basic information required for application of the methods of de la Pefia et al (1987) to Petunia has been elucidated

Plant Transformation

Creative Biogene has focused on routine plant tissue culture and genetic transformation to offer customers with high quality service over the past decade. We have transformed major agronomic crops successfully, such as rice, maize, cotton, wheat, barley, and model plants, such as Arabidopsis, tobacco. In addition, Creative Biogene's staffs have extensive experience in the development of transformation protocols for species for which transformation methodologies are not available or are currently inefficient. Creative Biogene provides plant transformation services for the plant species listed in the table below for clients around the world. We will offer seeds of positive T1 generation over 5 lines

Publish or patent?: Knowledge dissemination in agricultural biotechnology

"Plant transformation research has achieved outstanding progress in the development of transgenic crops over the past decades, and the research results have been spread through journal publications and patents. With the recent emergence of stronger intellectual property rights, investments in crop research and the landscape of plant transformation research have changed, along with the patterns of knowledge dissemination. In this paper, we discuss the recent trends in plant transformation research by examining patent and journal publication data during the last decade. The data analysis shows that there have been significant shifts toward applied research by developing countries and toward patenting as a means of knowledge dissemination during the past few decades, reflecting the increasing role of the private sector in developing countries in crop improvement research." from authors' abstractBiotechnology research, patents, Crop improvement, Science and technology, Genetic resources, Biodiversity, Journal publication, Developing countries,

U.S. Patent Literature Survey of Agrobacterium-Mediated Transformation of Sweet Potato (Ipomoea Batatas)

A team of researchers and patent information scientists at Franklin Pierce Law Center were asked to evaluate the patent and literature landscape related to the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation in sweet potato with respect to the U.S. patents and patent applications. This report provides a patent landscape of the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of sweet potato. The report includes the applicable methods of transformation and has also included certain patents and patent applications which claim a transformed plant by virtue of these methods. In certain cases, the claim structure covers Agrobacterium-mediated transformation technology via system and composition of matter claims and not the more prevalent method claims. Sweet potato plant (Ipomoea batatas) is adaptable to a broad range of agroecological conditions and fits in low input agriculture. It is highly productive even under adverse farming conditions. Sweet potato is grown in more than 100 countries as a valuable source of food, animal feed and industrial raw material. It is a staple crop in many South East Asian and African countries. Traditional plant breeding has contributed to the improvement of sweet potato, especially in developed countries such as the U.S.A. and Japan. Because of the biological complexities of sweet potato, sexual hybridization strategies have not been very effective in developing improved cultivars. Confidential Therefore, biotechnological tools, such as gene transfer, are very attractive in sweet potato improvement, as they enable direct introduction of desirable genes from other sources into preadapted cultivars

Optical microscopy on agrobacterium-mediated transient transformated arabidopsis nahg plants

Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transient transformation has demonstrated to be an invaluable tool in plant cell biology. However, low efficiency and inconsistency of this method in Arabidopsis has forced the implementation of Nicotiana benthamiana as a surrogate system, limiting applicability. Previous results suggested that hormone-mediated defence responses against bacteria might be responsible for the low efficiency of Agrobacterium-mediated transient transformation in Arabidopsis. In this work, we evaluate the efficiency of Agrobacterium-mediated transient transformation in Arabidopsis genotypes affected in JA perception or signalling (coi1, jin1), or with low SA or JA content (sid2, NahG, aos). We demonstrate that expression of the NahG transgene dramatically improves this process. Arabidopsis NahG plants can be efficiently used for transient expression-based optical microscopy assays routinely performed in N. benthamiana, such as determination of subcellular localization of GFP-fused proteins or analysis of protein-protein interactions by Bimolecular Fluorescent Complementation. Considering the wide-spread use of Agrobacterium-mediated transient transformation, this system can enormously facilitate research in the model plant Arabidopsis, allowing for an efficient use of the full potential of the numerous tools and resources currently available to the community.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Editorial : Plant transformation

Plant transformation provides a key tool for much basic research, such as the study of gene functions and interactions, protein–protein interactions, developmental processes, as well as applications for crop improvement and the development of plant bioreactors to produce vaccines. Efficient and reproducible transformation technologies are not only essential for the development of transgenic plants but also critical for other applications like transient gene expression studies and gene editing.Instituto de BiotecnologíaFil: Hopp, Horacio Esteban. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Agrobiotecnología y Biología Molecular; ArgentinaFil: Hopp, Horacio Esteban. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Hopp, Horacio Esteban. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular; ArgentinaFil: Spangenberg, German. La Trobe University. Agriculture Victoria. AgriBio; AustraliaFil: Herrera-Estrella, Luis. Texas Tech University. Institute of Genomics for Crop Abiotic Stress Tolerance. Plant and Soil Science Department; Estados UnidosFil: Herrera-Estrella, Luis. Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados. Unidad de Genómica Avanzada. Laboratorio Nacional de Genómica para la Biodiversidad (LANGEBIO); Méxic

The effects of different combinations and varying concentrations of growth regulators on the regeneration of selected Turkish cultivars of melon

Cucurbits are an economically important family of plants. The majority of the vegetable production in Turkey, for example, derives from the species beloning to the family Cucurbitaceae. Despite the importance of cucurbits among vegetable crops worldwide, the development of genomic tools in these species has been rather limited. Although melon production has been improved by conventional plant breeding methods, output is still insufficient. One useful technique in overcoming such problems in melon is functional genomics’ studies, and the other one is abiotic stress resistance and improved fruit quality has been gene transfer via Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated transformation. The availability of an optimized plant regeneration system is crucial for genetic transformation techniques as well as obtaining an entire plant. Although Hasanbey and Cinikiz in Turkey, for example, are important commercial melon cultivars used in the breeding programs and molecular biology of fruit ripening and genetic mapping of melons, there is no study to date on the regeneration of these cultivars