The development of genetically modified flax plants (Linum usitatissimum L.) carrying the bacterial resistance gene to glyphosate by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation

Abstract

Aims. Development of transgenic flax plants carrying bacterial specific genes that provide resistance to the herbicide glyphosate by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and the modified method of in planta. Methods. We cloned aroA genes from E.coli and D.dadantii and used site-directed mutagenesis to obtain altered genes with 40-fold lower sensivity to glyphosate. The resistance gene was inserted into an Agrobacterium transformation vector (pBI121 35S-CTP-aroA) and used to transform flax. Agrobacterium-mediated co-cultivation technique and in planta was used to increase the transformation efficiency of flax. Results. The resulting transgenic flax was shown to contain 35S promoter, nptII gene and glyphosate resistance gene. Conclusions. The results show that modified method of in planta can be used to produce transgenic flax plants. The system is rapid, simple and offers an alternative to Agrobacterium-mediated co-cultivation technique.

Key words: Linum usitatissimum, Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, in planta, gene aroA.