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Vectors and Agrobacterium Hosts for Arabidopsis Transformation

Adapted from "How to Transform Arabidopsis," Chapter 5, in Arabidopsis by Detlef Weigel and Jane Glazebrook. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA, 2002.

INTRODUCTION

Arabidopsis can be stably transformed using Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transfer of T-DNA. A. tumefaciens is a soil-dwelling bacterium that transforms normal plant cells into tumor-forming cells by inserting a piece of bacterial DNA (the transfer, or "T," DNA) into the plant cell genome. The T-DNA, which is flanked by left- and right-border (LB and RB) sequences, resides on a tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmid. The Ti plasmid also carries many of the transfer functions for mobilizing the T-DNA. This article provides a brief discussion of the principles of T-DNA transformation, including consideration of T-DNA vectors and their hosts.