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Excision of a selectable marker in transgenic rice (Oryza sativa L.) using a chemically regulated Cre/loxP system

  • Genetic Transformation and Hybridization
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Abstract

Removal of a selectable marker gene from genetically modified (GM) crops alleviates the risk of its release into the environment and hastens the public acceptance of GM crops. Here we report the production of marker-free transgenic rice by using a chemically regulated, Cre/loxP-mediated site-specific DNA recombination in a single transformation. Among 86 independent transgenic lines, ten were found to be marker-free in the T0 generation and an additional 17 lines segregated marker-free transgenic plants in the T1 generation. Molecular and genetic analyses indicated that the DNA recombination and excision in transgenic rice were precise and the marker-free recombinant T-DNA was stable and heritable.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank N. -H. Chua (Rockefeller University, USA) for providing the pX7-GFP vector, S. Ramachandran for providing the pSSZ32 vector, D. Eriksson, and J.-H. Lee for technical assistance, N. Naqvi, Y. Hong and M. Griffith for critically reading the manuscript. Our research was supported by the Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, Singapore, and the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Molecular Plant Pathology, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, 1 Research Link, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117604, Republic of Singapore

    C. Sreekala, L. Wu, K. Gu, D. Wang, D. Tian & Z. Yin

  2. Present address: Department of Plant Physiology, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, 2-1-2 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8602, Japan

    C. Sreekala

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  1. C. Sreekala
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  2. L. Wu
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  3. K. Gu
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  4. D. Wang
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  5. D. Tian
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  6. Z. Yin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Z. Yin.

Additional information

Communicated by I.S. Chung

The first two authors contributed equally to the work

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Sreekala, C., Wu, L., Gu, K. et al. Excision of a selectable marker in transgenic rice (Oryza sativa L.) using a chemically regulated Cre/loxP system. Plant Cell Rep 24, 86–94 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-004-0909-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-004-0909-5

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