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Inducible isopentenyl transferase as a high-efficiency marker for plant transformation

Nature Biotechnology volume 17, pages 916–919 (1999)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 01 October 1999

Abstract

Overexpression of the isopentenyltransferase gene (ipt) from the Ti-plasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens increases cytokinin levels, leading to generation of shoots from transformed plant cells. When combined with a dexamethasone-inducible system for controlling expression, ipt expression can be used to select for transgenic regenerants without using an antibiotic-resistance marker. The combined system allows efficient cointroduction of multiple genes (in addition to ipt) and produces transgenic plants without morphological or developmental defects.

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Figure 1: Dex-dependent regeneration of tobacco and lettuce shoots.
Figure 2: Luciferase activities in tobacco and lettuce regenerants.
Figure 3: Northern blot analysis of ipt and luc transcripts in tobacco.
Figure 4: Figure 4. Segregation and Southern blot analysis of the luc gene in transgenic tobacco.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Simon G. Møller for critical reading of the manuscript. T.K. was supported by an International Human Frontier Science Program Organization grant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Plant Molecular Biology, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Ave., New York, 10021-6399, NY

    Tim Kunkel, Qi-Wen Niu & Nam-Hai Chua

  2. Institute of Molecular Agrobiology, 1 Research Link, The National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117604 , Republic of Singapore

    Yang-Sun Chan

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  1. Tim Kunkel
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Correspondence to Nam-Hai Chua.

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Kunkel, T., Niu, QW., Chan, YS. et al. Inducible isopentenyl transferase as a high-efficiency marker for plant transformation. Nat Biotechnol 17, 916–919 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/12914

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