Agrobacterium with highly efficient gene transfer ability to plant

Mechanisms that inhibit the generation of GABA and ethylene during infection, which reduce transformation efficiency

2025.12.26

Advantage and Core Benefit

- Improved efficiency of recombinant plant production compared to conventional methods
- It is expected that recombinant plants can be produced even in plant species for which gene transfer by Agrobacterium has been considered difficult.

Background and Technology

The Agrobacterium method is frequently used for the production of transgenic plants because it can introduce genes into plants in a complete form. However, there are many plant species for which Agrobacterium is not efficient for gene transfer, and it is desirable to develop Agrobacterium with enhanced gene transfer ability.
The inventors revealed that GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) and ethylene released from the plant during transformation suppress the replication and propagation of Ti plasmid, which is necessary for gene transfer by Agrobacterium, resulting in a decrease in transformation efficiency. The inventors found that by providing Agrobacterium with GABA aminotransferase (GabT) activity and ACC (1-Aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid) degrading enzyme (AcdS) activity, which is an ethylene precursor, the efficiency of gene transfer to plants by Agrobacterium could be greatly improved.

Data

- Shoot regenerated from callus of Micro-Tom inoculated with each Agrobacterium (A)C-G, (B)V1-G: AcdS+, (C)V3-G: GabT+, (D)V4-G: AcdS+/GabT+, (F) frequency of regeneration, (H) frequency of callus regeneration
- Transient expression has been demonstrated for Tomato, Elianthus, Truvum, and Ashwagandha.

Patents and Publications

Publications
Satoko Nonaka et. al. Front. Plant Sci., 07 (2019) https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2019.01204P

Patents
Patent No. JP 6300377, US 9944936 (Granted)

Principal Investigator

Dr. Satoko Nonaka and Dr Hiroshi Ezura (Tsukuba University)

Expectations

We hope to collaborate with companies that are developing many plant species, companies that are developing genetically modified crops, and companies that are thinking of expanding into the field of high protein production through joint research on improving transformation efficiency.
Product No. WL-03766

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Category：food-agriculture

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Project No：wl-03766