Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression via root absorption in flowering Chinese cabbage

BACKGROUND: Because most transient transformation techniques are inadequate for functional genomics research in roots, we aimed to develop a simple and efficient Agrobacterium-mediated transient transformation system that utilized root absorption for research in flowering Chinese cabbage. RESULTS: Both semi-quantitative and fluorescent quantitative RT-PCR confirmed that the target gene BcAMT1;3 was more highly expressed in plants that were infected with the transformed Agrobacterium strain (EHA105-p35S-BcAMT1;3) than in control plants that were infected with the control strain (EHA105-p35S). Furthermore, GUS staining analysis conformed the availability of this transient transformation system. In addition, we found that the highest transformation efficiency was achieved using an Agrobacterium cell density of OD(600) = 0.3 for 3–6 h, without hyperosmotic pretreatment, and under these conditions, the peak transformation efficiency was observed at 2 and 4 d after infection. CONCLUSIONS: The transformation method developed by the present study is simple and convenient, since no special equipment is required, and since the method causes no damage, the plants can be used for subsequent experiments.