Abstract
In an attempt to improve Agrobacterium-mediated transformation frequency of American chestnut somatic embryos, a novel method of inoculation/co-cultivation was developed. Plate flooding is a simple method where the Agrobacterium inoculum is poured onto the embryos while they remain on multiplication medium. This method tested the hypothesis that wounding tissues prior to co-cultivation was unnecessary or counterproductive. Two clones, WB296 and P1-1, were tested for differences in transformation efficiency as measured by the number of transformed embryogenic cell lines per Petri dish, the total number of transformed cell lines (embryos plus callus) and percentage of transformants that remained embryogenic. Plate flooding using clone WB296 produced significantly more transformed embryo cell lines and had a higher percentage of transformants remain embryogenic. The number of total transformed cell lines (embryos plus callus) was the same as obtained by other methods (desiccation, blot dry, sand abrasion, sonication and vacuum infiltration). With clone P1-1 there were no significant differences among the inoculation/co-cultivation treatments tested. Polymerase chain reaction and Southern hybridizations confirmed that the transgene of interest had been stably integrated into both American chestnut clones. Whole plants were regenerated from clone P1-1.
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Abbreviations
- WB296:
-
American chestnut somatic embryo clone WB296-10A-2
- BAR:
-
Bialaphos (and PPT)-resistance
- GFP:
-
Green fluorescent protein
- OxO:
-
Oxalate oxidase
- P1-1:
-
American chestnut somatic embryo clone Pond1-1
- PEM:
-
Pro-embryogenic mass
- PPT:
-
Phosphinothricin
- T-embryos:
-
Transformed embryogenic cell lines
- T-events:
-
Transformed cell lines (embryos plus callus)
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the New York State Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation for financial support and donation of somatic embryo cell line P1-1, ArborGen LLC for financial support and technical advice, Joyce Fry and John Dougherty for technical advice, the Monsanto Fund for financial support and finally Dr. Scott Merkle at The Warnell School of Forest Resources at The University of Georgia for the donation of somatic embryo cell line WB296.
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Rothrock, R.E., Polin-McGuigan, L.D., Newhouse, A.E. et al. Plate flooding as an alternative Agrobacterium-mediated transformation method for American chestnut somatic embryos. Plant Cell Tiss Organ Cult 88, 93–99 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-006-9170-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-006-9170-7