BACKGROUND
Agrobacteria (Agrobacterium sp.) are plant pathogens that have been used as “natural genetic engineers” for the past 40 years, enabling the creation of transgenic plant lines and the overall transformation of agricultural and horticultural techniques. However, a major drawback of Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation is the recalcitrance of many plant species due to host defense responses. The approaches thus far to overcome this hurdle have been focused on changes made to the plant itself, including creating transgenic plants expressing bacterial effector proteins to suppress their defense responses, creating immune-compromised mutants, or transgenic lines with Cas9. These techniques themselves all exhibit drawbacks, highlighting a need for a novel method to improve plant transformations.
SUMMARY OF TECHNOLOGY
Researchers at OSU have developed a bacterium which can improve plant transformation through immune suppression. They have engineered Agrobacterium with a type III secretion system to deliver bacterial effector proteins that can suppress host defense or plant proteins that can improve transformation. Several advantages are realized by shifting the focus of functionality from plant to bacterium; primarily, this removes the dependence on immunocompromised mutant plants for use in plant transformation. Additionally, the novel agrobacterium takes away the need for both generating transgenic plants expressing bacterial effector proteins to suppress hot defense and creating transgenic plants expressing Cas9 for gene editing. This novel bacterium will allow for plant transformation advances for both agricultural industrial applications and as a plant science research tool.
POTENTIAL AREAS OF APPLICATION
MAIN ADVANTAGES
STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT