An Efficient <i>Agrobacterium</i> Mediated Transformation of Pineapple with GFP-Tagged Protein Allows Easy, Non-Destructive Screening of Transgenic Pineapple Plants
S. V. G. N. Priyadarshani,
Hanyang Cai,
Qiao Zhou,
Yanhui Liu,
Yan Cheng,
Junjie Xiong,
Dikoko Lesego Patson,
Shijiang Cao,
Heming Zhao,
Yuan Qin
Affiliations
S. V. G. N. Priyadarshani
Key Lab of Genetics, Breeding and Multiple Utilization of Crops, Ministry of Education, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Haixia Applied Plant Systems Biology, State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops, Center for Genomics and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Hanyang Cai
Key Lab of Genetics, Breeding and Multiple Utilization of Crops, Ministry of Education, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Haixia Applied Plant Systems Biology, State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops, Center for Genomics and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Qiao Zhou
Key Lab of Genetics, Breeding and Multiple Utilization of Crops, Ministry of Education, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Haixia Applied Plant Systems Biology, State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops, Center for Genomics and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Yanhui Liu
Key Lab of Genetics, Breeding and Multiple Utilization of Crops, Ministry of Education, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Haixia Applied Plant Systems Biology, State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops, Center for Genomics and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Yan Cheng
Key Lab of Genetics, Breeding and Multiple Utilization of Crops, Ministry of Education, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Haixia Applied Plant Systems Biology, State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops, Center for Genomics and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Junjie Xiong
Key Lab of Genetics, Breeding and Multiple Utilization of Crops, Ministry of Education, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Haixia Applied Plant Systems Biology, State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops, Center for Genomics and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Dikoko Lesego Patson
College of Life Sciences, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Shijiang Cao
College of Forestry, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Heming Zhao
Key Lab of Genetics, Breeding and Multiple Utilization of Crops, Ministry of Education, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Haixia Applied Plant Systems Biology, State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops, Center for Genomics and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Yuan Qin
Key Lab of Genetics, Breeding and Multiple Utilization of Crops, Ministry of Education, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Haixia Applied Plant Systems Biology, State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops, Center for Genomics and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Quite a few studies have been conducted to improve the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of pineapple, which is the second most important commercial tropical fruit crop worldwide. However, pineapple transformation remains challenging, due to technical difficulties, the lengthy regeneration process, and a high labor requirement. There have not been any studies specifically addressing the introduction of GFP-tagged genes into pineapples through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, which would enable easy, non-destructive expression detection. It would also allow expression localization at the organelle level, which is not possible with GUS a reporter gene that encodes β-glucuronidase or a herbicide resistance reporter gene. Here, we report a method for the introduction of GFP-tagged genes into pineapples through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. We used embryonic calli for transformation, and plants were regenerated through somatic embryogenesis. In this study, we optimized the incubation time for Agrobacterium infection, the co-cultivation time, the hygromycin concentration for selection, and the callus growth conditions after selection. Our strategy reduced the time required to obtain transgenic plants from 7.6 months to 6.1 months. The expression of GFP-tagged AcWRKY28 was observed in the nuclei of transgenic pineapple root cells. This method allows easy, non-destructive expression detection of transgenic constructs at the organelle level. These findings on pineapple transformation will help accelerate pineapple molecular breeding efforts to introduce new desirable traits.
