Marker-Free Plants from Leaf Disc Agroinfiltration

A technique called agro-infiltration was touted to be an excellent and efficient method for producing marker-free transgenic tobacco plants. The method was demonstrated to have an average transformation efficiency of about 15%, compared to just 0.7% when the conventional procedure of Agrobacterium co-cultivation was employed, said researchers in the University of Antwerp, Belgium.

The marker-free tobacco plants were regenerated from leaf discs transformed with marker-free plasmid vector containing the gene ß-glucuronidase (GUS). The difference between co-cultivation and agro-infiltration is that in the latter, the researchers subjected the leaf discs to a vacuum treatment after immersing them in the bacterial suspension.

Agro-infiltration has been regarded as a powerful tool in various studies. It is routinely used to study transient gene expression in plants. Its added utility in producing marker-free transgenic plants may help crop breeders in addressing the biosafety concerns on selectable markers raised by stakeholder groups.

For the details, the research paper published in Plant Cell Reports may be accessed by subscribers at  http://www.springerlink.com/content/f152466671270750/.