Direct DNA transfer using electric discharge particle acceleration (ACCELL™ technology)

Direct DNA transfer methods based on particle bombardment have revolutionized plant genetic engineering. Major agronomic crops previously considered recalcitrant to gene transfer have been engineered using variations of this technology. In many cases variety-independent and efficient transformation methods have been developed enabling application of molecular biology techniques to crop improvement. The focus of this article is the development and performance of electric discharge particle bombardment (ACCELL™) technology. Unique advantages of this methodology compared to alternative propulsion technologies are discussed in terms of the range of species and genotypes that have been engineered, and the high transformation frequencies for major agronomic crops that enabled the technology to move from the R&D phase to commercialization. Creation of transgenic soybeans, cotton, and rice will be used as examples to illustrate the development of variety-independent and efficient gene transfer methods for most of the major agronomic crops. To our knowledge, no other gene transfer method based on particle bombardment has resulted in variety-independent and practical generation of large numbers of independently-derived crop plants. ACCELL™ technology is currently being utilized for the routine transfer of valuable genes into elite germplasm of soybean, cotton, bean, rice, corn, peanut and woody species.     

单子叶植物RNA干扰和过表达Gateway载体的构建

基因枪和农杆菌介导的遗传转化是目前常用的两种单子叶植物遗传转化方法。载体的发展和改良是提高植物遗传转化效率的重要基础,RNA干扰载体和过表达载体是目前通过遗传转化研究植物基因功能的主要工具。Gateway克隆技术是一种基于lambda噬菌体特异位点重组特性的通用克隆技术,该技术可以将大批目的基因方便、快捷地连接到受体载体上。本文利用Gateway技术结合传统酶切、连接方法,构建了适用于单子叶植物基因枪和农杆菌转化的RNA干扰Gateway载体pAHC-PSK-RNAi、pClean-G185-RNAi和过表达Gateway载体pAHC-PSK-OE和pClean-G185-OE,为利用基因枪和农杆菌介导的遗传转化,在小麦和水稻等单子叶植物中进行规模化基因功能研究奠定了基础。     

农杆菌介导法与基因枪轰击法结合在植物遗传转化上的应用

根癌农杆菌介导法(Agrohacterium mediated transformation)和基因枪轰击法( particle bombardment transformation)是植物遗传转化的主要方法。两种方法各有优缺点．农杆菌介导法是一种天然的植物遗传转化系统,外源基因在转基因植物中的拷贝数低,遗传稳定性好;基因枪转化法不受材料基因型的限制。通过结合两种方法的优点,发展了3种农杆菌介导和基因枪轰击法相结合的遗传转化方法,分别为农杆枪法、基因枪轰击／农杆菌感染法、金粉或钨粉包裹菌体细胞作为微弹轰击法。对3种结合转化方法的技术途径、原理、转化受体及研究进展等方面进行了综述。     

植物的遗传转化及其应用(英文)

近年来,植物遗传转化研究有了长足的发展。已经达到能够通过简单的遗传控制手段研究具有新表现型的植物,甚至达到进入商业化的程度。这些手段包括植物生物学的主要研究技术以及植物组织培养和树种改良的一些实用方法。尽管采用农瘤杆菌和鸟枪法等技术的植物遗传转化系统已经得到了广泛的应用,但是在如何开发具有能够得到控制表达的转基因高产植物方面,在如何使所得到的转基因植物远离遗传危害等方面,目前的转化系统遇到了极大的技术挑战。已经提出了各种各样的方法用于将新基因稳定地导入120多种不同植物的核基因组。本文将讨论这些遗传转化系统所需的生物学要求和实际应用方面的需求、基因转化和转基因表达的研究策略、遗传转化植物的鉴定以及转基因植物与大众的认可。本文将分为七个部分加以讨论:一、导言;二 、基因转化到细胞里的方法;三、植物遗传转化策略;四、植物遗传转化的鉴定;五、植物遗传转化的实际应用;六、转基因植物与环境;七、未来植物遗传转化的需求与发展方向。     

纳米载体介导的植物遗传转化研究现状和前景

高效遗传转化技术是植物重要性状功能基因鉴定的前提和转基因育种的基础。随着纳米生物技术的发展,以纳米载体介导的植物转基因技术已显示出巨大的应用潜力。综述了国内外应用于植物纳米载体的类型、与外源基因的结合方式以及传输细胞的原理,重点阐述了影响纳米基因载体性能与转化效率的重要因素,以及纳米载体介导外源基因转化植物细胞的方法,分析了纳米载体介导法与其他转基因方法的特点和优势,并提出纳米载体介导的转化技术应加强稳定遗传转化、基因编辑与植物原位转化等方面探索研究,旨为植物遗传转化技术和方法提供新的思路。     

Transgene inheritance in plants genetically engineered by microprojectile bombardment

Microprojectile bombardment to deliver DNA into plant cells represents a major breakthrough in the development of plant transformation technologies and accordingly has resulted in transformation of numerous species considered recalcitrant toAgrobacterium- or protoplast-mediated transformation methods. This article attempts to review the current understanding of the molecular and genetic behavior of transgenes introduced by microprojectile bombardment. The characteristic features of the transgene integration pattern resulting from DNA delivery via microprojectile bombardment include integration of the full length transgene as well as rearranged copies of the introduced DNA. Copy number of both the transgene and rearranged fragments is often highly variable. Most frequently the multiple transgene copies and rearranged fragments are inherited as a single locus. However, a variable proportion of transgenic events produced by microprojectile bombardment exhibit Mendelian ratios for monogenic and digenic segregation vs events exhibiting segregation distortion. The potential mechanisms underlying these observations are discussed.     

Particle bombardment and the genetic enhancement of crops: myths and realities

DNA transfer by particle bombardment makes use of physical processes to achieve the transformation of crop plants. There is no dependence on bacteria, so the limitations inherent in organisms such as Agrobacterium tumefaciens do not apply. The absence of biological constraints, at least until DNA has entered the plant cell, means that particle bombardment is a versatile and effective transformation method, not limited by cell type, species or genotype. There are no intrinsic vector requirements so transgenes of any size and arrangement can be introduced, and multiple gene cotransformation is straightforward. The perceived disadvantages of particle bombardment compared to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, i.e. the tendency to generate large transgene arrays containing rearranged and broken transgene copies, are not borne out by the recent detailed structural analysis of transgene loci produced by each of the methods. There is also little evidence for major differences in the levels of transgene instability and silencing when these transformation methods are compared in agriculturally important cereals and legumes, and other non-model systems. Indeed, a major advantage of particle bombardment is that the delivered DNA can be manipulated to influence the quality and structure of the resultant transgene loci. This has been demonstrated in recently reported strategies that favor the recovery of transgenic plants containing intact, single-copy integration events, and demonstrating high-level transgene expression. At the current time, particle bombardment is the most efficient way to achieve plastid transformation in plants and is the only method so far used to achieve mitochondrial transformation. In this review, we discuss recent data highlighting the positive impact of particle bombardment on the genetic transformation of plants, focusing on the fate of exogenous DNA, its organization and its expression in the plant cell. We also discuss some of the most important applications of this technology including the deployment of transgenic plants under field conditions.     

一种马铃薯高效无标记转基因技术的建立

用农杆菌介导法转化马铃薯栽培品种紫花白的叶盘,通过1/4 MS培养基预培养、热激处理、低pH、高糖培养基共培养,之后利用PCR直接检测转化体,结果表明遗传转化效率可达5.1%,建立了马铃薯无标记转基因技术.该技术受基因型的限制小,用于其它3个不同的栽培品种东北白、晋薯7号和早大白,遗传转化效率亦达到了4.1%~8.3%.利用这项无标记转基因技术,在载体构建时就剔除了标记基因,遗传转化后直接分化培养,不必对转化细胞进行抗性筛选,缩短了遗传转化周期,省去了费时费力的标记基因剔除步骤,亦为重复转化聚合多个优良基因提供了便利.     

Towards the development of better crops by genetic transformation using engineered plant chromosomes

Plant Biotechnology involves manipulation of genetic material to develop better crops. Keeping in view the challenges being faced by humanity in terms of shortage of food and other resources, we need to continuously upgrade the genomic technologies and fine tune the existing methods. For efficient genetic transformation, Agrobacterium-mediated as well as direct delivery methods have been used successfully. However, these methods suffer from many disadvantages especially in terms of transfer of large genes, gene complexes and gene silencing. To overcome these problems, recently, some efforts have been made to develop genetic transformation systems based on engineered plant chromosomes called minichromosomes or plant artificial chromosomes. Two approaches namely, “top-down” or “bottom-up” have been used for minichromosomes. The former involves engineering of the existing chromosomes within a cell and the latter de novo assembling of chromosomes from the basic constituents. While some success has been achieved using these chromosomes as vectors for genetic transformation in maize, however, more studies are needed to extend this technology to crop plants. The present review attempts to trace the genesis of minichromosomes and discusses their potential of development into plant artificial chromosome vectors. The use of these vectors in genetic transformation will greatly ameliorate the food problem and help to achieve the UN Millennium development goals.     

RMDAP: a versatile, ready-to-use toolbox for multigene genetic transformation

Background

The use of transgenes to improve complex traits in crops has challenged current genetic transformation technology for multigene transfer. Therefore, a multigene transformation strategy for use in plant molecular biology and plant genetic breeding is thus needed.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Here we describe a versatile, ready-to-use multigene genetic transformation method, named the Recombination-assisted Multifunctional DNA Assembly Platform (RMDAP), which combines many of the useful features of existing plant transformation systems. This platform incorporates three widely-used recombination systems, namely, Gateway technology, in vivo Cre/loxP and recombineering into a highly efficient and reliable approach for gene assembly. RMDAP proposes a strategy for gene stacking and contains a wide range of flexible, modular vectors offering a series of functionally validated genetic elements to manipulate transgene overexpression or gene silencing involved in a metabolic pathway. In particular, the ability to construct a multigene marker-free vector is another attractive feature. The built-in flexibility of original vectors has greatly increased the expansibility and applicability of the system. A proof-of-principle experiment was confirmed by successfully transferring several heterologous genes into the plant genome.

Conclusions/Significance

This platform is a ready-to-use toolbox for full exploitation of the potential for coordinate regulation of metabolic pathways and molecular breeding, and will eventually achieve the aim of what we call “one-stop breeding.”     

叶绿体转化及其用于疫苗表达研究的最新进展

随着植物转基因研究的不断深入,核基因组转化的转基因沉默现象严重影响了基因工程的应用效果。植物叶绿体遗传转化以叶绿体基因组为平台对植物进行遗传操作,外源基因定点整合及母性遗传特性能较好地解决"顺式失活"和"位置效应"等类的基因沉默问题和转基因逃逸等安全问题,成为植物基因工程发展的新方向,在工业、农业及医药生物领域发挥了重要作用,也为生产廉价、安全的植物疫苗提供了新思路。本文在简要介绍叶绿体转化的原理、转化方法与优势的基础上,重点综述了近年来通过该技术表达的一些重要的病毒抗原和细菌抗原。最后,对叶绿体转化技术在表达外源基因方面存在的问题进行分析。未来随着叶绿体基因表达、调控机制研究的逐渐深入及相关技术体系的日臻完善,叶绿体转化有望成为疫苗生产的生力军。     

Genetic modification and plant food allergens: risks and benefits

Plant genetic engineering has the potential to both introduce new allergenic proteins into foods and remove established allergens. A number of allergenic plant proteins have been characterized, showing that many are related to proteins which have potentially valuable properties for use in nutritional enhancement, food processing and crop protection. It is therefore important to monitor the allergenic potential of proteins used for plant genetic engineering and major biotechnology companies have established systems for this. Current technology allows gene expression to be down-regulated using antisense or co-suppression and future developments may allow targeted gene mutation or gene replacement. However, the application of this technology may be limited at least in the short term by the presence of multiple allergens and their contribution to food processing or other properties. Furthermore, the long-term stability of these systems needs to be established as reversion could have serious consequences.     

影响草地早熟禾（Poa pratensis L.）基因枪转化关键因素研究

将含有DREB1A基因的表达载体,通过基因枪法转化草地早熟禾的胚性愈伤组织,探讨了金粉沉淀剂、金粉直径等因素对转化的影响,同时通过不同浓度潮霉素（Hygromycin,简称Hy）对未转化愈伤组织的筛选,获得最佳筛选浓度。结果表明,适合于草地早熟禾基因枪轰击的条件为：Ca（NO3）2＋PEG4000包被质粒DNA;1μm金粉作为质粒DNA的载体;合适的轰击高度为6cm、轰击次数为1次、无渗透处理。采用Hy作为草地早熟禾转基因植株抗生素筛选标记时,Baron品种愈伤组织继代的临界筛选浓度为100mg/L。     

Utilization of PVX-Cre expression vector in potato

Trait genes are usually introduced into the plant genome together with a marker gene. The last one becomes unnecessary after transgene selection and characterization. One of the strategies to produce transgenic plants free from the selectable marker is based on site-specific recombination. The present study employed the transient Cre-lox system to remove the nptII marker gene from potato. Transient marker gene excision involves introduction of Cre protein in lox-target plants by PVX virus vector followed by plant regeneration. Using optimized experimental conditions, such as particle bombardment infection method and application of P19 silencing suppressor protein, 20-27% of regenerated plants were identified by PCR analysis as marker-free. Based on our comparison of the recombination frequencies observed in this study to the efficiency of other methods to avoid or eliminate marker genes in potato, we suggest that PVX-Cre mediated site-specific excisional recombination is a useful tool to generate potato plants without superfluous transgenic sequences.     

花生转基因研究进展

花生是世界上重要的油料和经济作物之一,是人们生活的植物脂肪和蛋白质来源。现代生物技术的不断发展为花生育种和种质创新提供了新的技术手段, 它可以直接将来自不同种属的异源目的基因插人到花生基因组, 使花生表达目标性状, 实现花生品种的遗传改良。近年来, 国内外花生转基因研究取得了重大进展。文章综述了花生转基因在抗虫、抗病、抗非生物逆境和品质改良等方面的最新进展,并总结了近年来人们对农杆菌介导法、基因枪法和不依赖组织培养的转化法等主要的花生遗传转化方法的改进和探索。     

Non-viral approaches to gene therapy

Several advances in non-viral gene transfer technology have been reported over the past year. Cationic lipids have been successfully used to deliver genes in vivo, providing a clear alternative to recombinant viruses. In addition, investigators have demonstrated that direct application of DNA via injection or particle bombardment can be used for vaccination. Analysis of the mechanisms employed by viruses to invade cells has demonstrated a crucial role for membrane-active proteins or peptides in the entry process. Several non-viral systems that include membrane-active elements are now available.     

Alternative methods of plant transformation--a short review

Several methods of transformation are currently available for delivering exogenous DNA to plant cells. Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, microprojectile bombardment and direct protoplast transformation are routinely used today. However, each of them has certain disadvantages, which led to research into the development of novel alternative systems such as infiltration, electroporation of cells and tissues, electrophoresis of embryos, microinjection, pollen-tube pathway, silicon carbide- and liposome-mediated transformation. The low efficiency of transformation is considered to be the main reason for the limited popularity of the alternative transformation methods, other than infiltration and silicon carbide-mediated transformation, which seem to be the most promising ones for practice.     

Advances in selectable marker genes for plant transformation

Plant transformation systems for creating transgenics require separate process for introducing cloned DNA into living plant cells. Identification or selection of those cells that have integrated DNA into appropriate plant genome is a vital step to regenerate fully developed plants from the transformed cells. Selectable marker genes are pivotal for the development of plant transformation technologies because marker genes allow researchers to identify or isolate the cells that are expressing the cloned DNA, to monitor and select the transformed progeny. As only a very small portion of cells are transformed in most experiments, the chances of recovering transgenic lines without selection are usually low. Since the selectable marker gene is expected to function in a range of cell types it is usually constructed as a chimeric gene using regulatory sequences that ensure constitutive expression throughout the plant. Advent of recombinant DNA technology and progress in plant molecular biology had led to a desire to introduce several genes into single transgenic plant line, necessitating the development of various types of selectable markers. This review article describes the developments made in the recent past on plant transformation systems using different selection methods adding a note on their importance as marker genes in transgenic crop plants.     

基因治疗中外源基因的导入

基因治疗是将遗传物质导入靶细胞以达到治疗疾病的目的,目前基因治疗研究中的主要障碍是如何格外源基因导入靶细胞。本介绍基因治疗的原理和外源基因导入靶细胞时的常用方法,包括显微注射法、电穿孔法、基因枪粒子轰击法等。对基因治疗的现状、存在的问题及未来发展前景作了简要探讨。