The development of transgenic plants constitutes an important step in the discovery of novel agronomic traits. Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a commonly used vehicle in plant genetic engineering, delivering foreign DNA into plant cells through its T-DNA transfer system.
The optimized combination of T-DNA vectors, Agrobacterium strains and phytohormones often helps in establishing high transformation rates in crops. However, the process can result in unintended outcomes, such as the insertion of truncated or multiple copies of T-DNA. These issues can result in altered gene expression, instability in subsequent generations, and undesired phenotypic traits in the plants. Ultimately, these inconsistencies increase the time and cost required to develop stable, market-ready transgenic plants and limit the reliability of the transformation process for commercial applications.
Improving the precision and stability of single T-DNA integrations would enhance the overall success and efficiency of plant transformation procedures.
We are seeking to collaborate with researchers and organizations to develop a protocol that improves the efficiency of Agrobacterium transformations, generating high proportions of transgenic plants with intact, single copy T-DNA insertions through tissue culture regeneration.
- Genetically engineered Agrobacterium strains, modified T-DNA, and/or optimized bacterial/plant gene expression components.
- Helper plasmids or novel synthetic components that enhance transformation.
- Addition of small molecules or chemicals as components of the plant tissue culture media.
- Improve the efficiency in generating single-copy T-DNA insertions via Agrobacterium transformation.
- Applicable across multiple crops.
- Scalable innovation suited for a high-throughput transformation pipeline.
- Preferred crop is soybean.
- Solutions involving components from restricted organisms (e.g., viruses, humans and pathogens) or hazardous small molecules and chemicals.
The Q&A is now closed.
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