Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange
Abstract
Agrobacterium mediated transformation is widely used in plant genetic engineering. However, most economically important crops are not amenable to the method. Physical methods such as direct DNA uptake, microinjection, electroporation and microprojectile bombardment are used in these plants. However, these alternative methods are not as efficient. We used a combination of physical and Agrobacterium methods in our project. First, the total vir proteins were isolated from Agrobacterium, then mixed with transgenic DNA. The mixture was loaded on tungsten microcarrier and shot into soybean cotyledon nodes. We also used vir proteins in transient expression assay. Our experiments show that vir proteins decreased the transient expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP) in both protoplasts DNA uptake and gene gun methods, however they may enhance stable incorporation of the GUS gene
