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Research article2005Peer reviewed

Infection by Agrobacterium tumefaciens increased the resistance of leaf explants to selective agents in carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L. and D-chinensis)

Zhang S, Zhu LH, Li XY, Ahlman A, Welander M

Abstract

Selection is critical in plant transformation and the selection pressure is one of the most important factors affecting transformation efficiency. In some cases, a suitable concentration for selective agents is chosen based on regeneration tests and the potential influence of bacterial infection on the resistance of explants to selective agents has been probably neglected. In order to evaluate the effect of agrobacterial infection on the resistance of explants to selective agents, we performed several experiments on two carnation cultivars infected by two strains (EHA101 and C58C1), carrying only a helper plasmid, of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The selective agents were kanamycin, mannose and phosphinothricin (PPT). The results have showed that the bacterial infection indeed increases the tolerance of leaf explants to the selective agents and this increase is genotype-dependent. In general, without the bacterial infection, the highest concentrations for shoot formation were 25-50 mg 1(-1) for kanamycin, 3-4 g 1(-1) for mannose and 0 mg 1(-1) for PPT depending on genotype. After the bacterial infection, shoot formation was observed at either 100 mg 1(-1) kanamycin, or 4-6 g 1(-1) mannose or 1-2 mg 1(-1) PPT depending on cultivar. It seems that there is an interaction between the bacterium strains and the genotypes in relation to shoot formation. The results in this study have provided evidence that bacterial infection can increase the plant resistance to selective agents, which should be considered when establishing a critical concentration threshold of selective agents for transformation. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

Published in

Plant Science
2005, Volume: 168, number: 1, pages: 137-144
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI IRELAND LTD

      SLU Authors

    • Welander, Margareta

      • Department of Crop Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

      • Ahlman, Annelie

        • Department of Crop Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

        • Zhu, Li-Hua

          • Department of Crop Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

        UKÄ Subject classification

        Horticulture

        Publication identifier

        DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plantsci.2004.07.030

        Permanent link to this page (URI)

        https://res.slu.se/id/publ/3648