Pollen magnetofection for genetic modification with magnetic nanoparticles as gene carriers

Abstract

Genetic modification plays a vital role in breeding new crops with excellent traits. Almost all the current genetic modification methods require regeneration from tissue culture, involving complicated, long and laborious processes. In particular, many crop species such as cotton are difficult to regenerate. Here, we report a novel transformation platform technology, pollen magnetofection, to directly produce transgenic seeds without regeneration. In this system, exogenous DNA loaded with magnetic nanoparticles was delivered into pollen in the presence of a magnetic field. Through pollination with magnetofected pollen, transgenic plants were successfully generated from transformed seeds. Exogenous DNA was successfully integrated into the genome, effectively expressed and stably inherited in the offspring. Our system is culture-free and genotype independent. In addition, it is simple, fast and capable of multi-gene transformation. We envision that pollen magnetofection can transform almost all crops, greatly facilitating breeding processes of new varieties of transgenic crops.

The Status of Setaria viridis Transformation: Agrobacterium-Mediated to Floral Dip

“…While there are advantages and disadvantages as described in this review for each transformation method, researchers need to investigate the different methods to determine the approach that is most feasible and reproducible in their labs. Advances in genetic engineering methods, such as the recently reported pollen magnetofection in cotton (Zhao et al, 2017), along with continued development of genetic and genomic resources will greatly benefit the Setaria research community.…”

“…In addition, copy number of the introduced transgene needs to be taken into consideration from the standpoint of potential complications with transgene expression, namely, gene silencing (Tang et al, 2007). Agrobacterium -mediated transformation results in a lower transgene copy number than delivery by biolistics and the newly reported pollen magnetofection transformation (Zhao et al, 2017). As for Agrobacterium -mediated transformation, it is important that the plant material that works best for plant regeneration under tissue culture conditions is amenable to infection yet not adversely affected by the bacterial infection.…”

Progress toward Understanding the Interactions between DNA Nanostructures and the Cell

“…With the assistance of heat shock, the resultant structures show fourfold higher transformation into Escherichia coli cells than unmodified plasmids . In 2017, Zhao et al prepared a structural cousin of SNAs by electrostatically immobilizing plasmid DNA on the surface of iron oxide nanoparticles that are precoated with branched polyethyleneimine . With a size of 200 nm, these plasmid‐coated particles penetrate the apertures of pollen grains (with an aperture diameter of 5 µm).…”

The Emergence of Plant Nanobionics and Living Plants as Technology

“…This review will focus on the emerging applications of plant nanobionics and bioelectronic interface to provide functionalities typically obtained from conventional electronic devices. We specifically highlight the use of species‐independent technologies that can be applied to any wild‐type plants without the need of genetic engineering method which is only applicable to a narrow range of plant species . This reflects the increasing use of wild‐type plants for field‐based solutions in areas where genetic engineering approaches are often ineffective due to regulatory oversight, public scrutiny, and the time‐consuming processes associated with plant breeding .…”