An improved procedure for production of white spruce (Picea glauca) transgenic plants using Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

An efficient and reproducible procedure for the transformation of white spruce (Picea glauca [Moench] Voss) embryogenic tissues was developed using A. tumefaciens-mediated gene transfer. Rapidly dividing white spruce embryogenic tissues were co-cultivated with disarmed A. tumefaciens strains containing additional copies of the virulence regions from plasmid PToK47. The plasmid pBi121, containing the neomycin phosphotransferase II (nptII) gene providing kanamycin resistance as a selectable marker and the beta-glucuronidase (uidA) reporter gene, was used as binary vector. The highest frequency of transformation (15 transformed tissues g(-1) FW of treated embryogenic tissue) was obtained with 5-d-old tissues grown in liquid medium and co-cultivated with Agrobacterium for 2 d in the same medium but containing 50 microM acetosyringone. Recovery of kanamycin-resistant tissues was improved when tissues were first grown for 10 d on a timentin-containing medium (400 mg l(-1)), to prevent bacterial overgrowth, before application of the selection pressure. After 6 weeks on kanamycin-selection medium, resistant tissues were obtained and showed stable uidA expression. The presence of the transgenes was demonstrated by PCR analysis and their integration into the genome was confirmed by Southern hybridization. Transgenic plants were regenerated from transformed tissues within 4 months after co-culture.

Identification of variability of ribosomal DNA spacer from Pseudomonas soil isolates.

The polymerase chain reaction was used to amplify the spacer region located between the 16S and 23S ribosomal RNA genes of strains of Pseudomonas fluorescens and Pseudomonas putida isolated from peat bog, canola field, or arctic plants. Some of spacer region of four of the P. fluorescens strains examined, strains 64-3, 63-28, QP5, and R17-FP2, was about 515 base pairs (bp) in length, and contained the genes for tRNA(Ile) and tRNA(Ala). The DNA sequences of two strains from canola, 64-3 and 63-28, differed at only two positions. The sequences of the peat bog strains QP5 and R17-FP2 were identical. However, differences were noted between the DNA sequence common to the pair of strains 64-3 and 63-28 and the corresponding common sequence for strains QP5 and R17-FP2. These differences were mainly concentrated in two DNA segments of 10 and 19 bp, respectively. A probe for the 19-bp variable segment that occurs in the ribosomal spacer of strains QP5 and R17-FP2 recognized total DNA from these two strains, but not DNA from other bacteria of different origins. These results suggest the existence of a limited degree of variability within the 16S-23S ribosomal DNA spacer region, and that this variability may be useful to the recognition of particular Pseudomonas strains from environmental samples.