RMDAP: A Versatile, Ready-To-Use Toolbox for Multigene Genetic Transformation

BACKGROUND: The use of transgenes to improve complex traits in crops has challenged current genetic transformation technology for multigene transfer. Therefore, a multigene transformation strategy for use in plant molecular biology and plant genetic breeding is thus needed. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we describe a versatile, ready-to-use multigene genetic transformation method, named the Recombination-assisted Multifunctional DNA Assembly Platform (RMDAP), which combines many of the useful features of existing plant transformation systems. This platform incorporates three widely-used recombination systems, namely, Gateway technology, in vivo Cre/loxP and recombineering into a highly efficient and reliable approach for gene assembly. RMDAP proposes a strategy for gene stacking and contains a wide range of flexible, modular vectors offering a series of functionally validated genetic elements to manipulate transgene overexpression or gene silencing involved in a metabolic pathway. In particular, the ability to construct a multigene marker-free vector is another attractive feature. The built-in flexibility of original vectors has greatly increased the expansibility and applicability of the system. A proof-of-principle experiment was confirmed by successfully transferring several heterologous genes into the plant genome. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This platform is a ready-to-use toolbox for full exploitation of the potential for coordinate regulation of metabolic pathways and molecular breeding, and will eventually achieve the aim of what we call “one-stop breeding.”