Successful transformation of plants by Agrobacterium tumefaciens requires that the bacterial T-complex actively escorts T-DNA into the host's nucleus. VirD2 and VirE2 are virulence proteins on the T-complex that have plant-functional nuclear localization signal sequences that may recruit importin a proteins of the plant for nuclear import. In this study, we evaluated the involvement of seven of the nine members of the Arabidopsis thaliana importin a family in Agrobacterium transformation. Yeast two-hybrid, plant bimolecular fluorescence complementation, and in vitro protein-protein interaction assays demonstrated that all tested Arabidopsis importin a members can interact with VirD2 and VirE2. However, only disruption of the importin IMPa-4 inhibited transformation and produced the rat (resistant to Agrobacterium transformation) phenotype. Overexpression of six importin a members, including IMPa-4, rescued the rat phenotype in the impa-4 mutant background. Roots of wild-type and impa-4 Arabidopsis plants expressing yellow fluorescent protein-VirD2 displayed nuclear localization of the fusion protein, indicating that nuclear import of VirD2 is not affected in the impa-4 mutant. Somewhat surprisingly, VirE2-yellow fluorescent protein mainly localized to the cytoplasm of both wild-type and impa-4 Arabidopsis cells and to the cytoplasm of wild-type tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) cells. However, bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays indicated that VirE2 could localize to the nucleus when IMPa-4, but not when IMPa-1, was overexpressed.

Limited knowledge currently exists regarding the roles of plant genes and proteins in the Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation process. To understand the host contribution to transformation, we carried out root-based transformation assays to identify Arabidopsis mutants that are resistant to Agrobacterium transformation (rat mutants). To date, we have identified 126 rat mutants by screening libraries of T-DNA insertion mutants and by using various "reverse genetic" approaches. These mutants disrupt expression of genes of numerous categories, including chromatin structural and remodeling genes, and genes encoding proteins implicated in nuclear targeting, cell wall structure and metabolism, cytoskeleton structure and function, and signal transduction. Here, we present an update on the identification and characterization of these rat mutants.

SummaryPrevious work from numerous laboratories has suggested that integration of Agrobacterium tumefaciens T-DNA into the plant genome occurs preferentially in promoter or transcriptionally active regions. However, all of these studies were conducted on plants recovered from selective conditions requiring the expression of transgenes. The conclusions of these studies may therefore have been biased because of the selection of transformants. In this study, we investigated T-DNA integration sites in the Arabidopsis genome by analyzing T-DNA/plant DNA junctions generated under non-selective conditions. We found a relatively high frequency of T-DNA insertions in heterochromatic regions, including centromeres, telomeres and rDNA repeats. These T-DNA insertion regions are disfavored under selective conditions. The frequency with which T-DNA insertions mapped to exon, intron, 5¢ upstream and 3¢ downstream regions closely resembled their respective proportions in the Arabidopsis genome. Transcriptional profiling indicated that expression levels of T-DNA pre-integration target sites recovered using selective conditions were significantly higher than those of random Arabidopsis sequences, whereas expression levels of genomic sequences targeted by T-DNA under non-selective conditions were similar to those of random Arabidopsis sequences. T-DNA target sites identified using non-selective conditions did not correlate with DNA methylation status, suggesting that T-DNA integration occurs without regard to DNA methylation. Our results indicate that T-DNA integration may occur more randomly than previously indicated, and that selection pressure may shift the recovery of T-DNA insertions into gene-rich or transcriptionally active regions of chromatin.

The Arabidopsis thaliana histone H2A gene HTA1 is essential for efficient transformation of Arabidopsis roots by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Disruption of this gene in the rat5 mutant results in decreased transformation. In Arabidopsis, histone H2A proteins are encoded by a 13-member gene family. RNA encoded by these genes accumulates to differing levels in roots and whole plants; HTA1 transcripts accumulate to levels up to 1000-fold lower than do transcripts of other HTA genes. We examined the extent to which other HTA genes or cDNAs could compensate for loss of HTA1 activity when overexpressed in rat5 mutant plants. Overexpression of all tested HTA cDNAs restored transformation competence to the rat5 mutant. However, only the HTA1 gene, but not other HTA genes, could phenotypically complement rat5 mutant plants when expressed from their native promoters. Expression analysis of HTA promoters indicated that they had distinct but somewhat overlapping patterns of expression in mature plants. However, only the HTA1 promoter was induced by wounding or by Agrobacterium infection of root segments. Our data suggest that, with respect to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, all tested histone H2A proteins are functionally redundant. However, this functional redundancy is not normally evidenced because of the different expression patterns of the HTA genes.

Alendronate sodium is formulated into gels and evaluated for the treatment of bone resorptive lesions in periodontitis. Carbopol 934P was used for the preparation of gels in three different concentrations. The prepared gel was evaluated for various properties such as preformulation, content uniformity, viscosity, compatibility, sterility, in vitro diffusion, and in vivo studies. The drug and the polymer were found to be compatible and confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Viscosity of the gels increased with the increase in the polymer concentration. The formulations were found to be sterile. In vitro release study revealed that drug released from the gel follows non-Fickian diffusion followed by first-order release. In vivo studies were carried out for 6 months in patients. The results revealed a significant improvement in the clinical parameters such as gingival index, probing pocket depth, clinical attachment level, and potent inhibitory effect on bone resorption by inhibition of osteoclasts. In addition, there was increase in the new bone formation.