Molecular Characterization of Transformed Plants

Abstract

The generation of genetically transformed plants is central to, and has indeed revolutionized, plant molecular biology. This is true for studies at both the fundamental and more applied levels of research. For researchers interested in unravelling the roles of specific genes in particular pathways of growth and development, the introduction into plants of foreign genes and gene promoters linked to reporter genes allows the detailed study of the temporal, spatial and quantitative expression of plant genes and the activities of associated regulatory sequences. In our own laboratory, we use these techniques in a programme of insertional mutagenesis to identify developmentally interesting genes (Topping et al. 1991; Lindsey et al. 1993; Topping et al. 1994). In the more applied area of genetic engineering, which is directed towards crop improvement, the introduction of novel genes encoding, for example, resistance to various pests and herbicides into economically important species, is in the long term likely to develop into a major branch of the plant breeding industry (Lindsey 1992). There are several well-characterized and very successful methods which are currently being employed to introduce specific genes and gene regulatory sequences into plants and these are described in Chapter 8 of this book.