Abstract
The plastids (chloroplasts) of flowering plants have a small (120-215-kb) highly polyploid genome and prokaryotic-type transcription and translation machinery. Plastid transformation requires selection for a vector-encoded antibiotic resistance gene in tissue culture cells. When plastid transformation is accomplished, the marker gene can be excised using site-specific recombinases. Plastid transformation is feasible in tobacco, tomato, potato, lettuce, soybean, and cabbage. Tobacco is used as model system to study plastid gene function, to improve photosynthesis, and to express complex metabolic processes in polycistronic operons. High-level expression makes chloroplasts attractive for the production of human therapeutic proteins and industrial enzymes. Agronomic applications include incorporation of genes for herbicide resistance, insecticidal proteins, and silencing RNAs in the chloroplast genome. Maternal inheritance of plastids is a natural mechanism to control transgene flow.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Breeding Genetics and Biotechnology |
| Publisher | Elsevier Inc. |
| Pages | 255-261 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Volume | 2 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780123948083 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780123948076 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 27 2016 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Keywords
- Chloroplast transformation
- Herbicide resistance
- Insect resistance
- Marker excision
- Marker free
- Maternal inheritance
- Nicotiana tabacum
- Plastid genetic system
- Plastid transformation
- Plastid transformation vector
- RNAi
- Recombinant protein
- Tobacco
- Transgene containment