Introducing foreign DNA to plant cells may be undertaken through a variety of methods, one of them being the use of transfer DNA. One such kind is Agrobacterium-mediated transfer, wherein a Ti plasmid derived from a plant pathogen is used to allow a foreign gene to integrate into the plant host’s genome.

In an effort to develop “Plant-Derived Transfer DNAs,” Caius M. Rommens and colleagues from Simplot Plant Sciences searched through DNA databases for sequences in plants which matched those in transfer DNAs, and which could possibly be used as alternatives to Agrobacterium. Their work appears in the latest issue of Plant Physiology.

Through isolation of the fragments and subsequent transformation of tobacco cells, researchers described such alternatives from both dicotyledonous (potato, tomato, pepper, alfalfa, and Arabidopsis) and monocotyledonous (rice, barley, and wheat) plant species. Efficacy tests showed that 14 of the elements they found displayed at least 50% of the activity of conventional Agrobacterium transfer DNA.

With their work, researchers were also able to construct an all-native alfalfa transfer DNA vector that can be used for the production of intragenic plants.

Subscribers to Plant Physiology may read the article at http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/content/full/139/3/1338.

Other readers may still view the abstract at http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/content/abstract/139/3/1338

Source: CropBiotech Update