Articles
IMPROVEMENT OF ROOTING AND REDUCTION IN PLANT HEIGHT IN APPLE AND PEAR THROUGH GENE TRANSFER
Article number
738_42
Pages
353 – 359
Language
English
Abstract
Genetic transformation provides an efficient way for improving plant properties.
Aiming at improving the rooting ability and reducing the plant height, we have transformed the vigorous apple cultivars Gravenstein and McIntosh, and vigorous apple rootstock A2 and semi-dwarfing apple rootstock M.26 with the rolA or gai gene and the dwarf apple rootstock M.9/29 and dwarf pear rootstock BP10030 with the rolB gene.
Transgenic clones have been evaluated in vitro and under greenhouse conditions.
All rolB transgenic clones showed greatly improved rooting ability.
Most of the rolA or gai transgenic clones showed a reduced plant height.
The rolB transformed clones of M.9/29 and M.26 together with the untransformed controls have been used as rootstocks in a field trial.
Five untransformed apple cultivars have been budded onto these rootstocks.
The purposes of the field trial are to evaluate the effects of transgenic rootstocks on growth and development of the untransformed cultivars, to analyse the stability of transgene expression under field conditions and to evaluate the possible transport of transgene products, RNA and proteins, from rootstock to scion.
The results showed that the survival of budding was not affected by the rolB gene.
Preliminary results also showed that the rolB gene did not influence flowering of untransformed scion cultivars.
The evaluation of the field trial is still going on.
Aiming at improving the rooting ability and reducing the plant height, we have transformed the vigorous apple cultivars Gravenstein and McIntosh, and vigorous apple rootstock A2 and semi-dwarfing apple rootstock M.26 with the rolA or gai gene and the dwarf apple rootstock M.9/29 and dwarf pear rootstock BP10030 with the rolB gene.
Transgenic clones have been evaluated in vitro and under greenhouse conditions.
All rolB transgenic clones showed greatly improved rooting ability.
Most of the rolA or gai transgenic clones showed a reduced plant height.
The rolB transformed clones of M.9/29 and M.26 together with the untransformed controls have been used as rootstocks in a field trial.
Five untransformed apple cultivars have been budded onto these rootstocks.
The purposes of the field trial are to evaluate the effects of transgenic rootstocks on growth and development of the untransformed cultivars, to analyse the stability of transgene expression under field conditions and to evaluate the possible transport of transgene products, RNA and proteins, from rootstock to scion.
The results showed that the survival of budding was not affected by the rolB gene.
Preliminary results also showed that the rolB gene did not influence flowering of untransformed scion cultivars.
The evaluation of the field trial is still going on.
Authors
L.H. Zhu, X.Y. Li, M. Nyqvist, M. Welander
Keywords
Agrobacterium transformation, rooting, plant size, rolA, rolB, gai
Online Articles (105)