Effect of various irradiation treatments of plant protoplasts on the transformation rates after direct gene transfer

Summary In P. hybrida and B. nigra an enhancement of transformation rates (direct gene transfer) of about six to seven-fold was obtained after irradiation of protoplasts with 12.5 Gy (X-ray). The effect of protoplast irradiation was similar in experiments where protoplasts were irradiated 1h before transformation (X-ray/DNA) or 1h after completion of the transformation procedure (DNA/X-ray). Increased X-ray doses up to 62.5 Gy resulted in further enhancement of percentages of transformed colonies, indicating a correlation between relative transformation frequencies (RTF) and the doses applied. Estimation of degradation rates of plasmid sequences in plant protoplasts yielded a reduction of plasmid concentration to 50% 8–12 h after transformation. In 1-day-old protoplasts, the level of plasmid fragments dropped to 0%–10% compared to 1h after transformation. The results demonstrate that the integration rates of plasmid sequences into the plant genome may in part be governed by DNA repair mechanisms. This could be an explanation for the observed genotypic dependence of transformation rates in different plant species and plant genotypes. Gene copy number reconstructions revealed enhanced integration rates of plasmid sequences in transformed colonies derived from irradiated protoplasts.