影响T-DNA转移的寄主植物细胞因子

在农杆菌介导的植物遗传转化过程中,寄主细胞因子参与农杆菌细胞与寄主细胞的识别与附着、毒性基因的表达以及T-DNA的跨膜运输和整合等过程.文章就这几方面的研究进展进行了综述.     

拟南芥光周期开花突变体的筛选和基因的鉴定

以双子叶模式植物拟南芥（Arabidopsis thaliana）突变体crylcry2为实验材料,用舍有激活标记质粒DSK1015的农杆菌浸花进行转化,构建了拟南芥T-DNA插入突变体库．通过筛选和观察分析,获得了一些开花时间比crylcry2明显延迟或明显提早的突变体．采用IPCR（inverse PCR）和TAIL-PCR（thermal asymmetric interlaced PCR）等方法,鉴定了这些突变体T-DNA插入位点的基因组旁邻序列,并采用半定量RT-PCR对插入位点两侧基因的mRNA水平进行了分析,初步鉴定了与开花相关的候选基因,为进一步研究其功能,深入研究隐花素调节光周期开花的作用机制奠定了基础．     

T-DNA插入水稻群体中卷叶突变体R1-A2的遗传分析

在根癌农杆菌介导的T-DNA(携带有除草剂Basta抗性基因bar和Ds因子)转化中花11水稻群体中,获得了一个叶片发生明显内卷的突变体R1-A。经过连续三代的分离鉴定,获得突变体的纯合株(R1-A2),并与中花11号进行杂交,在调查的36个F_1植株中,全部表现为卷叶,并对Basta除草剂都表现为抗性。在852个F_2单株中,卷叶为645株,正常叶207株,卷叶和正常叶的比例为3:1,其中,卷叶株均对Basta表现抗性,正常叶株均对Basta表现敏感,表明卷叶性状和Basta抗性存在着共分离关系。用扩增Ds因子的引物,对F_2中45个卷叶抗性株进行PCR鉴定,都获得预期长度的Ds因子片段,进一步表明在这些卷叶的植株中都有T-DNA的插入;而30个正常叶敏感株都不能检测到Ds的特征片段。在以卷叶突变(R1-A2)为回交亲本的F_1B_1植株中,全部植株表现卷叶;在以中花11号为回交亲本的F_1B_1植株中,卷叶和正常叶植株的分离比为1:1。上述结果表明该卷叶突变是个显性突变,受一个基因所控制,且该基因的突变与T-DNA的插入有关。     

稻瘟病菌T-DNA插入方法优化及其突变体分析

优化了农杆菌介导转化稻瘟病菌获得T-DNA插入突变的条件,包括选择转化子的潮霉素B用量,抑制农杆菌的抗生素头孢噻肟钠和羧苄青霉素的配比,不同转化阶段培养基的选择等。转化1×10⁶个孢子平均可获得约500个左右的转化子,PCR和TAILPCR检测表明约85%转化子中含T-DNA插入。对1520个突变体进行形态变异观察,发现菌落颜色突变的有15个;随机取58个突变体进行比较,发现产孢量减少的4个,孢子萌发率降低的8个,附着胞形成率降低的9个;还获得对水稻品种C101LAC（Pi-1）和751127（Pi-9）致病的突变体,为进一步克隆相应的无毒基因奠定了基础。     

Positive-negative selection and T-DNA stability in Arabidopsis transformation

We have analysed the application of positive-negative selection for the selection of homologous recombination interactions between the chromosome and a T-DNA molecule after transformation of plant cells. Two different genomic loci in a cell suspension of Arabidopsis thaliana were chosen to study gene targeting events. One was the chalcone synthase (CHS) gene present as a single copy and the second an hemizygous chromosomally inserted T-DNA containing the hpt gene, conferring resistance to hygromycin, flanked by CHS sequences. The target lines were transformed with replacement-type T-DNA vectors which contained a positive selectable marker flanked by the regions of the CHS gene and a negative selectable marker to counter-select random insertions. As negative marker we used the Escherichia coli codA gene encoding cytosine deaminase, conferring upon the cells sensitivity to 5-flourocytosine (5-FC). Doubly selected transformants represent 1–4% of the primary transformed cells. Targeting events were not found at the chalcone synthase locus nor at the artificial hpt locus in a total of 4379 doubly selected calli, corresponding to at least 109475 individual primary transformants. We show by PCR and Southern analysis that the 5-FC resistance in the majority of these cells is associated with substantial deletions of the T-DNA molecule from the right-border end.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Agrobacterium tumefaciens</Emphasis>-mediated transformation of plants by the pTF-FC2 plasmid is efficient and strictly dependent on the MobA protein

In the transformation of plants by Agrobacterium tumefaciens the VirD2 protein has been shown to pilot T-DNA during its transfer to the plant cell nucleus. Other studies have shown that the MobA protein of plasmid RSF1010 is capable of mediating its transfer from Agrobacterium cells to plant cells by a similar process. We have demonstrated previously that plasmid pTF-FC2, which has some similarity to RSF1010, is also able to transfer DNA efficiently. In this study, we performed a mutational analysis of the roles played by A. tumefaciens VirD2 and pTF-FC2 MobA in DNA transfer-mediated by A. tumefaciens carrying pTF-FC2. We show that MobA+/VirD2+ and MobA+/VirD2– strains were equally proficient in their ability to transfer a pTF-FC2-derived plasmid DNA to plants and to transform them. However, the MobA–/VirD2+ strain showed a DNA transfer efficiency of 0.03% compared with that of the other two strains. This sharply contrasts with our results that VirD2 can rather efficiently cleave the oriT sequence of pFT-FC2 in vitro. We therefore conclude that MobA plays a major VirD2-independent role in plant transformation by pTF-FC2.     

Isolation and Characterization of a Rice Cysteine Protease Gene, OsCP1, Using T-DNA Gene-Trap System

The T-DNA gene-trap system has been efficiently used to elucidate gene functions in plants. We report here a functional analysis of a cysteine protease gene, OsCP1, isolated from a pool of T-DNA insertional rice. GUS assay with the T-DNA tagged line indicated that the OsCP1 promoter was highly active in the rice anther. Sequence analysis revealed that the deduced amino acid sequence of OsCP1 was homologous to those of papain family cysteine proteases containing the highly conserved interspersed amino acid motif, ERFNIN. This result suggested that the gene encodes a cysteine protease in rice. We also identified a suppressed mutant from T2 progeny of the T-DNA tagged line. The mutant showed a significant defect in pollen development. Taken together, the results demonstrated that OsCP1 is a cysteine protease gene that might play an important role in pollen development.     

Generation of marker-free transgenic maize by regular two-border <Emphasis Type="Italic">Agrobacterium</Emphasis> transformation vectors

By introducing additional T-DNA borders into a binary plasmid used in Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation, previous studies have demonstrated that the marker gene and the gene of interest (GOI) can be carried by independent T-strands, which sometimes integrate in unlinked loci in the plant genome. This allows the recovery of marker-free transgenic plants through genetic segregation in the next generation. In this study, we have found that by repositioning the selectable marker gene in the backbone and leaving only the GOI in the T-DNA region, a regular two-border binary plasmid was able to generate marker-free transgenic maize plants more efficiently than a conventional single binary plasmid with multiple T-DNA borders. These results also provide evidence that both the right and left borders can initiate and terminate T-strands. Such non-canonical initiation and termination of T-strands may be the basis for the elevated frequencies of cotransformation and unlinked insertions.     

Rapid identification of Arabidopsis insertion mutants by non-radioactive detection of T-DNA tagged genes

To assist in the analysis of plant gene functions we have generated a new Arabidopsis insertion mutant collection of 90 000 lines that carry the T-DNA of Agrobacterium gene fusion vector pPCV6NFHyg. Segregation analysis indicates that the average frequency of insertion sites is 1.29 per line, predicting about 116 100 independent tagged loci in the collection. The average T-DNA copy number estimated by Southern DNA hybridization is 2.4, as over 50% of the insertion loci contain tandem T-DNA copies. The collection is pooled in two arrays providing 40 PCR templates, each containing DNA from either 4000 or 5000 individual plants. A rapid and sensitive PCR technique using high-quality template DNA accelerates the identification of T-DNA tagged genes without DNA hybridization. The PCR screening is performed by agarose gel electrophoresis followed by isolation and direct sequencing of DNA fragments of amplified T-DNA insert junctions. To estimate the mutation recovery rate, 39 700 lines have been screened for T-DNA tags in 154 genes yielding 87 confirmed mutations in 73 target genes. Screening the whole collection with both T-DNA border primers requires 170 PCR reactions that are expected to detect a mutation in a gene with at least twofold redundancy and an estimated probability of 77%. Using this technique, an M2 family segregating a characterized gene mutation can be identified within 4 weeks.