Biotech Updates

Comparison of Agrobacterium tumefaciens Strains for the Genetic Transformation of Tomato

November 7, 2012

Different Agrobacterium tumefaciens strains have been used in tomato transformation, which had varying efficiencies. To find out which of the commonly used strain is the most efficient, V.J. Chetty from University of California Riverside and other scientists conducted a study. They tested the ability of strains GV3101, EHA105, AGL1, and MP90 to transform Micro-Tom and incorporate specific copy number in host plant cells. Results showed Agrobacterium strain GV3101 showed the highest transformation rates and lowest percentage of plants with single transgene insertions. On the other hand, strain MP90 had the least transformation capacity but the highest frequency of plants with single transgene copies. Strain EHA105 exhibited the best combination of high transformation efficiency and single insertional events of transgenes, which is favorable for functional genomics and biotechnological applications in tomato.

Read more about the study at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00299-012-1358-1?LI=true.