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A protocol for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation in rice

Abstract

Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of rice is an important method that has been widely adopted by many laboratories. However, because current approaches rely on culture systems, routine protocols have been established only in japonica rice, especially those varieties with higher regeneration potential. Some very efficient methods have been developed for japonica varieties that enable high-throughput functional analysis in rice; however, many elite japonica, and most indica, varieties are difficult to regenerate, leading to low transformation efficiencies. Much effort has been devoted to improving transformation efficiency for all rice genotypes. Here, we describe an Agrobacterium-mediated rice transformation method that is applicable to easily cultured varieties in addition to elite japonica varieties that are more difficult to culture. Using this method, transgenic rice plants can be obtained in about 2–3 months with a transformation frequency of 30–50%, both in easily cultured varieties and recalcitrant elite japonica rice.

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Figure 2: Procedure for producing transgenic rice plants.
Figure 1: Regeneration test of three rice varieties.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Sakimi Watanabe and Sachiko Nomura for their technical assistance in establishing this protocol.

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Correspondence to Asuka Nishimura.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Nishimura, A., Aichi, I. & Matsuoka, M. A protocol for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation in rice. Nat Protoc 1, 2796–2802 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2006.469

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