Abstract
Selectable markers help the transformed cell/tissue to survive in an otherwise lethal exposure to an antibiotic or herbicide. Unfortunately, almost all the traditional selectable markers are antibiotic and herbicide resistance genes, which are controversial on human health concerns and environmental impact. Novel plant-derived, non-antibiotic, and non-herbicide selectable markers are urgently needed in plant transformation. Our previous work showed that the seedlings of overexpression Arabidopsis lines of AtGASA6 survived on medium with a high concentration of sugar, which leads to the hypothesis that AtGASA6 could be a selectable marker on media with high or low sugar content. In this study, leaf explants of AtGASA6 overexpression tobacco lines regenerated shoots on sugar-free shooting medium while those of wild type could not. Moreover, the seeds of AtGASA6 overexpression tobacco lines germinated and grew into normal seedlings on sugar-free MS medium while those of WT could not. Attractively, no developmental defects were observed in AtGASA6 transgenic progenies. Using AtGASA6 as a selectable marker, overexpression tobacco lines of GAI, which restrains plant size, were created on sugar-free media. The GAI overexpression lines had a smaller plant size than that of control. Considering its plant-derived and non-antibiotic nature, GASA6 is promising to be used as a selectable marker in plant transformation.
Key message
This research identifies a novel non-antibiotic selectable marker GASA6 using sugar-free selection medium, which could address ecological concerns and food safety issues.
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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article [and its supplementary information files].
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Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31870301, 31370350 for S.Z). We thank Dr. Guangbin Luo (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) for polishing the manuscript.
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SZ, XW, and YL designed experiments. YL, JG performed experiments. YL, JG, SZ, and XW performed data analysis. YL wrote the manuscript. All authors approved the submission.
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Communicated by Sergio Rosales-Mendoza.
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Luo, Y., Gu, J., Wang, X. et al. A novel non-antibiotic selectable marker GASA6 for plant transformation. Plant Cell Tiss Organ Cult 148, 533–544 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-021-02204-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-021-02204-1